Maya in Hindu Teachings

Through the ages the human mind has developed many philosophical, scientific, and religious theories about how the universe came into existence. The differences among these theories, however, lay mainly in their manner of presentation; for all the great minds of the past voiced the same teaching of wisdom, the same Theosophy. This teaching was in fact taught to the first conscious human beings on this earth by Manasaputric beings from other planes (the "Sons of Mind," who gave man the light of mind). As the ages passed, however, the essential meanings of these cosmic philosophies were lost sight of and only the words remained. Thus there arose various schools of thought, each following a more or less wholly exoteric interpretation of the original religio-philosophical system to which it belonged.

Some thinkers of ancient India, for example, taught the doctrine of Arambha, which holds that the universe was created by a supreme intelligence out of a cosmic kind of matter pre-existing in space. According to this school, the universe was formed by a vast, individual divinity. The basic meaning of the Sanskrit word Arambha is "beginning." Christian thought went still further along the same line and built the far from philosophical idea that an infinite, personal God created the universe out of nothing; yet this was nothing but a degenerate form of the Arambha idea.

Universes are certainly not "created" as the external product of the will and intelligence of a supreme mind acting at its pleasure. Still, these Hindu thinkers were right in saying that every universe has a periodic beginning and end. The truth is that every universe is simply the karma, that is, the reproduction, of its former self. It is an old universe preceding its re-embodiment; and this process repeats itself through timeless duration, although a principle of progressive development is at work everywhere throughout evolutionary growth.

Another school taught the doctrine of Parinama. According to this doctrine, the universe (any universe) emanated from a cosmic intelligence superior to mind, and the substance that comes forth into manifestation flows out from within this intelligence itself. This idea of emanation or outflowing is in harmony with the esoteric tradition so far; but the esoteric tradition adds a very important point: this supreme cosmic intelligence is only one of countless similar intelligences; it is not single and unique in boundless space. (See The Mahatma Letters, p. 73.)

A third school holds, as the essence of the doctrine of Vivarta, that the universe came forth as a change or transformation (modification) of the divine itself, and is therefore an impermanent, that is, Mayavic (illusory), product. We also agree with certain elements of this teaching. The error of this school, however, seems to be that instead of accepting that the visible universe is only a temporary cosmic illusion, it thinks that a portion of the divine essence, the very basis of reality, actually becomes illusion.

These three schools can be compared with science, philosophy, and religion: Arambha corresponds to the scientific point of view, Parinama to the philosophical vision, and Vivarta to the religious way of seeing truth.¹

To sum up, Arambha is what we might call the "scientific" view of the origin of things. It sees the universe as a "new" product of a pre-existing cosmic intelligence and of pre-existing "points" of individuality (which we call not atoms but Monads). Although such a newly produced universe is regarded as the karmic result of the preceding universe, that is, as the former "self" of the present universe, the emphasis still falls on beginnings, on the universe being a "new" production, just as in the way scientists interpret the universe.

Parinama, while having much in common with Arambha, emphasizes that the universe comes forth through the emanation of universal forces, beings, and substances from within outwards, that is, that it exists through a kind of emanational or evolutionary transformation or unfolding.

The Vivarta system penetrates more deeply into the cosmic mystery. It directs its attention to the unending continuity of the divine essence. According to this, the divine produces its own appearances² through its own modifications (or some of them), and these modifications are the cosmic Mahamaya (the great cosmic illusion).

For this reason the whole objective universe, visible or invisible, is regarded as illusory. For the universe is merely a collective modification, or series of modifications, of the productive divine essence. The divine essence, however, always remains itself; but by initiating emanational evolution it produces its own appearances through objectivization.

These three schools still live on in India in more or less various branches, and their ideas have found acceptance elsewhere in the world as well. Although they contain elements of truth, all three seem to assume a "creative" Supreme Intelligence that works, as an individual, more or less in a human way, like a Creator or Fashioner; in this respect all three are far too anthropomorphic (human-shaped).

The Theosophical view, on the other hand, holds that boundless Space contains an indwelling creative and formative life and substance within its boundless reaches and at every infinitesimal mathematical point. Thus, while in one part of the Boundless a visible and invisible universe exists, in another part another universe may be reaching the end of its Manvantara (period of manifestation) and preparing for its cosmic Pralaya (period of rest and dissolution). It is therefore a mistaken conception to think of Infinity as an active, creative act emanating universes from itself at any given moment; for this implies a willing and fashioning, and therefore limited, act. The truth is that every such universe, as a spatial unit, although it exists through eternity within the boundless, manifests by virtue of the active seeds of individuality within itself. The process by which universes appear, disappear, and exist because of their own innate individual life, consciousness, and energies is one aspect of the doctrine of swabhava³ (the property of self-production).

All such beings, whether a universe or a life-atom anywhere, are surrounded by the encompassing mind, consciousness, substance, and power of the boundless Whole, and are permeated by them on every side. H. P. Blavatsky expressed this as follows:

"... the Unknown Cause does not, consciously or unconsciously, put forth evolution, but only exhibits periodically different aspects of itself to the perception of finite Minds." (The Secret Doctrine, Vol. II, p. 487)

The point here is that the "Unknown Cause" is not an individual in the sense of being a creator. It is the vast, boundless cosmic ocean out of which all things come forth, in which all things eternally exist, and to which all beings eventually return for their periods of rest and renewal.

It would be entirely wrong to imagine boundless Infinity as an individuality that rises and falls with the evolving waves of life. All such cosmic processes, however immense they may seem to the human imagination, are finite. The infinite, boundless, and unknown cannot be said to evolve; for only finite things evolve, and evolution is a finite process. Evolution is another way of expressing the working of karma; the working of karma and evolution are in practice the same thing.

In the consciousness of beings of the Dhyani-Chohanic level (the Dhyani-Chohans are divine, planetary beings far above man), human evolution here on earth is pure maya. In the consciousness of still loftier beings far beyond the Dhyani-Chohans, even the evolution of the Dhyani-Chohans is pure maya, however high a level they may occupy for us. Nevertheless, evolution also exists in the worlds of matter, where maya is densest; for matter and maya are essentially the same in meaning. Because karma rules here, evolution rules too; and so evolution is supremely real for us. It both is and is not.

When any being awakens into manifestation, the process in every case begins with an emanation from within the divine being that until then has been "sleeping." This word, of Latin origin, expresses an outflowing, as a thought flows from the mind or a river from its source. Emanation continues without interruption throughout the whole lifetime of any manifesting being, great or small; indeed every evolutionary advance is a growth achieved through what emanates or flows forth from within.

We may consider emanation and evolution to be almost, if not exactly, the same. In fact they are simply two ways of seeing the same process, whether on the infinite cosmic scale or on the small finite scale. Evolution means bringing out, and thus releasing, what already exists within a being as unmanifested power and faculty. Evolution begins the moment emanation begins on any plane. In other words, from the moment a quality or faculty begins to flow forth from the essence of the Monad, it also begins to bring out the Monad's swabhava, that is, its characteristic qualities. The opposite of evolution is involution (turning inward): the gathering back of what has previously unfolded. Involution is therefore the process that works in exactly the opposite direction to what has been emanated.

For us finite beings, however, evolution and emanation, maya and all its various workings, are real enough in contrast to the ineffable divine; for our perceiving minds are themselves products of these Mayavic processes. It may be said that esoteric philosophy teaches a kind of objective idealism: the universe and all its manifestations and works are "real" to those related to it; but compared with the absolute and boundless Reality from which the universe originally came forth as a cosmic Monad, and to which it will return ages hence, this universe is maya.