Maya

Maya is the power or appearance through which the world seems distinct from ultimate reality. In Hindu philosophy, its meaning varies across traditions, from cosmic creative power to the source of mistaken perception.

Advaita Vedanta: A nondual school of Hindu philosophy that identifies ultimate reality with Brahman and treats perceived plurality as ultimately unreal. Its account of ignorance explains how Maya sustains the apparent division between Brahman and the world.
Parinamavada: The theory that an effect arises through a real transformation of its material cause. Unlike Advaita's appearance-based account, this theory allows creation to involve real transformation.
Rigveda: The oldest Veda, a collection of Sanskrit hymns composed in ancient India. Early Vedic uses of Maya include the skill or wondrous power of gods, not simply illusion.
Adhyaropa-apavada: A teaching method that provisionally attributes features to reality and then withdraws those attributions. Advaita uses this method to loosen mistaken assumptions about the world and Brahman.
Devi: The supreme Goddess or divine feminine in Hindu traditions, worshipped in many forms. Shakta traditions can identify Maya with the Goddess's power to create and sustain the cosmos.
Avidya: Ignorance or misapprehension that obscures knowledge of reality in several Indian philosophical traditions. Advaita links Maya's world-concealing appearance to ignorance of Brahman's nonduality.
Vishishtadvaita: A Hindu philosophical school that understands souls and the world as real, dependent modes of Brahman. It rejects the idea that the world is merely an ultimately unreal appearance.
Upanishads: Ancient Indian philosophical texts that explore the self, ultimate reality, and liberation. Upanishadic passages connect Maya with divine creative power and the world's appearance.
Neti neti: A Sanskrit expression meaning “not this, not this,” used to indicate reality beyond finite descriptions. The method counters Maya's apparent distinctions by refusing to identify ultimate reality with any object.
Shaktism: A Hindu tradition centered on the worship of the Goddess as supreme divine reality. Its accounts of divine power offer a theistic interpretation of Maya unlike Advaita's emphasis on misapprehension.

Linked from 11 pages