- The Doctrine of Māyā: The World as Appearance
If Brahman is the Absolute, unchanging and eternal, how do we account for the world of multiplicity, change, and suffering? Advaita answers with one of its most profound and often misunderstood doctrines: Māyā.
Māyā is not simply “illusion” in the sense of something unreal or nonexistent. Rather, Māyā refers to the mysterious power by which the Absolute appears as the relative. The world is neither fully real (since it vanishes upon realization of Brahman) nor fully unreal (since it is experienced and operates according to its own order). Śaṅkara described it as anirvacanīya — indescribable, beyond categorization as real or unreal.
To grasp this, classical Advaita teachers use analogies:
The Rope and the Snake: In dim light, a rope is mistaken for a snake. The snake is not real, but it appears, and until the mistake is corrected, fear arises. Similarly, the world of multiplicity is a misperception superimposed upon Brahman.
The Dream Analogy: Dreams appear vividly real while one is dreaming, but upon awakening, they dissolve into nothingness. In the same way, the world is experienced as real until awakening to Brahman, at which point it is seen as transitory appearance.
The Mirage in the Desert: Water shimmers in the distance, drawing the thirsty traveler. The mirage is not real water, yet its appearance has power until recognized.
Through such analogies, Advaita affirms that Māyā has a practical reality (vyāvahārika satya) but not ultimate reality (paramārthika satya). The task of spiritual practice is to pierce through this veil.
- Avidyā: The Root of Ignorance
Closely tied to Māyā is Avidyā, ignorance. It is not ignorance in the simple sense of lacking information, but a primal misapprehension of reality. Avidyā is the root mistake of identifying the Self with body, mind, ego, or world.
In Advaita, avidyā is beginningless (anādi) but not endless. It has no ultimate reality, but it persists until destroyed by knowledge (jñāna). This ignorance is what causes bondage: we mistake the non-Self (anātman) for the Self, the impermanent for the eternal, the finite for the infinite.
Śaṅkara compares avidyā to a veil or a covering. Just as clouds obscure the sun without affecting the sun itself, ignorance obscures the light of Brahman without touching Brahman. The sun shines always, but the perceiver must wait until the clouds disperse. In the same way, the Self is ever-present, ever-luminous, yet covered by ignorance.
Avidyā manifests in two ways:
- Veiling (āvaraṇa): Concealing the truth of Brahman.
- Projection (vikṣepa): Projecting multiplicity, distinctions, and false identifications upon the Self.
Together, these two aspects generate the world of duality. Liberation (mokṣa) comes when avidyā is destroyed by direct realization of Brahman.
- The Path of Realization: From Ignorance to Knowledge
If bondage is caused by ignorance, then liberation can only come through knowledge (jñāna). But this knowledge is not book-learning or intellectual speculation; it is direct, intuitive insight into one’s identity with Brahman.
Advaita outlines a structured path for this realization, often summarized in fourfold discipline:
- Discrimination (viveka): The ability to discern between the eternal (Brahman) and the non-eternal (the world, body, mind).
- Dispassion (vairāgya): Detachment from sensory pleasures and worldly attachments, recognizing their transitory nature.
- Six virtues (ṣaṭ-sampatti): A set of inner disciplines including calmness (śama), self-control (dama), withdrawal (uparati), forbearance (titikṣā), faith (śraddhā), and concentration (samādhāna).
- Longing for liberation (mumukṣutva): An intense yearning for freedom from the cycle of birth and death.
With these prerequisites, the student approaches the guru, and through śravaṇa (hearing the teaching), manana (reflection), and nididhyāsana (deep meditation), comes to realize the truth of the mahāvākyas (great sayings): tat tvam asi, aham brahmāsmi (“I am Brahman”).
The realization is not the acquisition of something new, but the recognition of what was always the case. Just as waking from a dream reveals that one was never really bound within it, so too liberation reveals that one was never separate from Brahman.
- Mokṣa: Liberation as Dissolution of Ignorance
For Advaita, liberation (mokṣa) is not the attainment of a new state, but the removal of ignorance. One does not “become” Brahman; one simply awakens to the fact that one has always been Brahman.
Mokṣa is characterized by:
Freedom from rebirth (saṃsāra): The cycle of birth and death, driven by karma and ignorance, ceases.
Abidance in the Self: The liberated one rests in pure awareness, untouched by dualities of pleasure and pain.
Compassion and peace: Though the liberated one knows the world is appearance, they often act with spontaneous compassion, seeing all beings as the Self.
Importantly, Advaita maintains that liberation is possible in this very life (jīvanmukti). A jīvanmukta, one liberated while alive, may continue to function in the world, but their inner identity is firmly established in Brahman.
This vision of mokṣa as realization of Absolute Nothingness (yet fullness) sets Advaita apart. Where some traditions envision liberation as going to a heavenly realm or merging into God, Advaita sees it as awakening to the Self here and now.