Translator Notes on Maya in Vivekacudamani 108 (110)

avyaktanāmnī parameśaśaktiḥ anādyavidyā triguṇātmikā parā, kāryānumeyā sudhiyaiva māyā yayā jagatsarvamidaṁ prasūyate.

This is a controversial verse in the Vivekacudamani as it gives a rather precise definition of my. Some scholars maintain that Sankara never gave such a definition in any of his indisputable works.

Within the Advaita tradition, avidya/maya has been defined as having six defining characteristics: it is beginningless (anadi); it is terminated by right knowledge (jnana-nivartya); it veils and projects (varana and viksepa); it is indefinable (anirvacaniya); it is of the nature of a positive existence (bhavarpa); and it is located either in the individual (jiva) or in the Absolute (Brahman).

The three qualities (trigunas) are the ultimate building blocks of the material and mental universe. They are the indivisible atoms of everything. They are not merely parts, qualities, properties or ingredients of primordial nature (prakrti). They are the very material of prakrti.

There are an almost infinite number of gunas of three different types and by way of combination and perpetual recombination, they produce multiplicity. This theory is very much like the modern nuclear physics or contemporary field theory with a localisations of fields. Nature is like a quivering force field which is undergoing continuous transformations.

The word "maya” may be creatively derived from "ma-ya" or "that which is not".

~Grimes

The Undifferentiated—the perfectly balanced state of the three Gunas, where there is no manifested universe. When this balance is disturbed, then evolution begins. 

Power of the Lord.—This distinguishes the Vedantic conception of Maya from the Sankhya view of Prakriti which they call insentient and at the same time independent.

~Madhavananda

One of the powers of the omnipotent Lord Parameśvara is the power to delude Himself! This Power Divine is called the ‘unmanifest’ and is the causal body.

Sattva, rajas and tamas are three ‘climatic’ conditions, as it were, under which thought functions. From these alone various manifestations arise. This māyā śakti consisting of the three guṇas is beyond sense perceptions (parā). Only its effects can be perceived, just as we do not know what electricity is, except through its manifestation.

When a particular tendency manifests in an individual, then only can it be said that his vāsanās are of a particular type. Hence, from the effects-only, māyā śakti can be inferred by those who have the necessary subtle intellect.

These vāsanās make one act more and more and in the end, man becomes cocooned in them and gains permanently for himself the sense of a separate individuality, the jīva-bhāva. All these are created by this avidyā, this non-apprehension of Reality.

Avidyā is the vāsanās in the microcosm. The avidyā of all individuals put together is its macrocosmic form and is called ‘māyā’. This is the vehicle of the Supreme when He functions as Īsvara. When the Supreme functions through the vāsanās or avidyā (microcosmic māyā), It becomes the jīva – the individual ego. When the Supreme functions through macrocosmic avidyā (māyā), He is Īsvara.

Each individual creates his own world around himself due to his ignorance (avidyā), through his mind. The sum of each one’s world put together is the total world which we call the universe, the jagat. Therefore, the total world, the universe is created by the total mind when expressing through the total vāsanās, otherwise called māyā.

Thus the Supreme functioning through total avidyā is God, Īsvara, and the Supreme expressing through the total mind is the Creator (Brahmā) who creates the universe.

~Chinmayananda

Māyā is not independent and it is dependent on the vastu which is parameśa. Parama means that which is not limited by space, time or object. It is saccidānanda-brahma. At the same time, in association with the māyā śakti the vastu is called īśa, the Lord, the cause of creation. Vastu is called īśa only because of this māyā śakti. 

Māyā is His power to create, sustain and destroy. It is aja, unborn, anādi, beginningless and eka, undivided. Māyā is not an imagination by any human mind; the śruti herself talks about māyā. The śruti says, ‘Know māyā to be the prakṛti and the māyī to be Maheśvara, the Lord’ (Śvetāśvataropaniṣad 4.10).

The world that we experience must have a cause; that cause can be none other than Brahman. We have a problem here. If Brahman is the cause it has to undergo some change to become the world, but Brahman being limitless in terms of time and other attributes, cannot undergo any change. So we have to bring in another factor that accounts for this apparent change in the form of the world, a factor which is not independent of Brahman. That factor, that power is called māyā. Ontologically māyā is mithyā.

This māyā is parā, and it is the cause of creation. It has got another name avyakta, unmanifest. Before the creation, the māyā is unmanifest. The śruti says, ‘only sat was there before the creation. That sat alone appears in the form of this world.’ Therefore this jagat is nothing but māyā plus sat. It is purely a name for sat, because it is mithyā. 

Māyā can be understood from its effect in the form of the three-fold manifestations - activity, knowledge and inertness - we see in the manifest world. From this we do infer that the required factors for the three-fold manifestation should be present in its cause, māyā, which is, being mithyā, dependent on the sad-vastu.

This māyā is understood by a sudhī, one who possesses a dhī, intelligence, who has got śraddhā and a reasoning capacity which is in keeping with the śruti’s understanding. Reasoning can help you to discern things, and it can take you upto a point to understand a thing. But if it delves where it has no access, it goes in circles and finds that all the doors are shut. At that point it has to give up and accept what the śāstra says. So māyā is understood from its effect by a person who has got a mind which always strives to understand what the śruti says and assimilate it.

From what is said in this verse it may appear that there are two realities ātmā and māyā. If they are two different realities then there is no more non-duality. So, is this māyā separate from the vastu? What is the ontological status of māyā? That is explained in the next verse. (Māyā cannot be said as real or non-existent or combination of real and non-existent; is not separate or non-separate from Brahman nor combined in nature of separate and non-separate; does not have parts nor is partless or combined in nature. She is a great wonder and cannot be categorically explained.)

~Dayananda

The Translations

That-which-is-not (my) is called the unmanifest. It is the power of the supreme Lord. It is beginningless ignorance. The three qualities are its constituents. It is superior to their effects and has to be inferred, by the wise whose intellect is in accord with scripture, from the effects it produces. It is this which gives birth to the entire world.(110) ~Grimes

108. Nescience (avidyā) or māyā is also called the ‘unmanifest’, and is the power of the Lord. It is without beginning, it comprises the three guṇas and is superior to their effects. It is to be inferred only by one who has a clear intellect, from the effects it produces. It is this avidyā which projects the entire universe. ~Chinmayananda

108. Avidya (Nescience) or Ma}^^ called also the Undifferentiated, is the power of the Lord. It is without beginning, is made up of the three Gunas and is superior to the effects (as their cause). She is to be inferred by one of clear intellect only from the effects She produces. It is She who brings forth this whole universe. ~Madhavananda

That māyā, through which this whole world is born, is called avyakta (unmanifest) and is the power of the limitless Lord. She is the beginningless ignorance, of the nature of the three guṇas viz., sattva, rajas and tamas and superior to her effects. Her existence is to be inferred from her effects, by a person with a clear mind. ~Dayananda

MAYA, in her potential aspect, is the divine power ·of the Lord. She has no beginning. She is composed of the three gunas, subtle, beyond perception. It is from the effects she produces that her existence is inferred by the wise. It is she who gives birth to the whole universe. ~Parabhavananda / Isherwood

Word-by-Word Sanskrit to English Meaning

avyaktanāmnī (अव्यक्तनाम्नी): Unmanifest is her name (Avyakta = unmanifest; Nāmnī = named).
parameśaśaktiḥ (परमेशशक्तिः): The supreme power of the Lord (Parama = supreme; Īśa = Lord; Śaktiḥ = power).
anādyavidyā (अनाद्यविद्या): Beginningless ignorance (Anādi = without beginning; Avidyā = nescience/ignorance).
triguṇātmikā (त्रिगुणात्मिका): Composed of the three gunas or qualities (Tri = three; Guṇa = qualities of Sattva, Rajas, Tamas; Ātmikā = nature/essence).
parā (परा): Superior, transcendent, or causal.
kāryānumeyā (कार्यानुमेया): To be inferred from her effects (Kārya = effect/creation; Anumeyā = to be inferred).
sudhiyaiva (सुधियैव): By the wise alone (Sudhiyā = by the wise/pure-minded; Eva = only/alone).
māyā (माया): Maya (the cosmic illusion).
yayā (यया): By whom.
jagatsarvamidaṁ (जगत्सर्वमिदं): This entire universe (Jagat = universe; Sarvam = all; Idam = this).
prasūyate (प्रसूयते): Is produced, projected, or born.

~Google