Maya by S. Sankaran
Every entity has two aspects – a hidden inner core i.e. its true nature and a false appearance. This co-existence of true nature and appearance in entities is called Maya. Appearance alone is accepted as true at first. But the reality dawns on man far late due to the prevalence of ignorance and the absence of knowledge. False appearance in the entity is purely due to ignorance, which can vanish with the occurrence of knowledge. The co-existence of ignorance and knowledge also can be classified as Maya. Maya is due to three gunas and the gunas are hurdles to know and realize God. God is therefore deluded to the world due to this Maya. The nature of Maya can well be explained by the following examples: 1. A man treads on a rope in the street while walking in the darkness and he is frightened mistaking the rope to a snake. Due to darkness, which is akin to ignorance, the true nature of the rope has been identified with a false appearance of snake. The lig