Most of you must have heard, when people are asked about Maya, most people will tell you it's an illusion, Bhram, it does not exist, that this world is an imagination of the mind. You, I'm imagining you, you're imagining me and we all have the same imagination? Wow, if anyone of you were to ask to describe me, you will all see the same thing. You will not see a donkey or an elephant or a dog or a cat, you will say this man has a beard, wearing yellow clothes. All of you will give the same description, so we all have the same imagination? Wow.
Western philosophers too, such as Berkeley, Plato, Hegel, Kant, have established theories of subjective and objective idealism based on the theory that what is seen as the world is an imagination of the mind, it is not real. Adi Jagadguru Shankaracharya also said the world is an imagination of the mind, it is not real. Okay, let's see what Gita and our scriptures have to say about this.
Bhagavan Krishna says to Arjuna, 7th chapter,
भूमिरापोऽनलो वायु: खं मनो बुद्धिरेव च |
अहङ्कार इतीयं मे भिन्ना प्रकृतिरष्टधा || 4||bhūmir-āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva cha
ahankāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛitir aṣhṭadhāअपरेयमितस्त्वन्यां प्रकृतिं विद्धि मे पराम् |
जीवभूतां महाबाहो ययेदं धार्यते जगत् || 5||apareyam itas tvanyāṁ prakṛitiṁ viddhi me parām
jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat
Chapter 7, verse 4 and 5, Gita verses. Bhagavan Krishna is saying very clear, He outlines prakriti, maya, there are 8 principles, earth, water, fire, air, space, mind, intellect, ego, and he says, he declares this is my power, this is the power of mind, this maya which comprises of these 8 things is the power of mind. The Vedas say:
मायां तु प्रकृतिं विद्यान्मायिनं च महेश्वरम्।
तस्यावयवभूतैस्तु व्याप्तं सर्वमिदं जगत्॥māyāṁ tu prakṛtiṁ vidyānmāyinaṁ ca maheśvaram |
tasyāvayavabhūtaistu vyāptaṁ sarvamidaṁ jagat ||
Chapter 4, verse 10. This Veda mantra is saying the governor of maya is Bhagavan, God. God has been called mayin, that who has, who controls, who has the power of maya, in whom that power of maya resides. It's not an imagination of the mind.
