Category:God and Maya
Theme Analysis
The relationship between the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His external illusory energy, known as māyā, is a fundamental subject in Vedic philosophy. Śrīla Prabhupāda emphatically refutes the Māyāvādī misconception that the Absolute Truth can ever be bewildered or covered by illusion. Such a flawed proposition implies that māyā is actually greater than God, which is a logical absurdity. In truth, māyā is the obedient maidservant of Lord Kṛṣṇa, functioning entirely under His supreme direction to control and condition the rebellious living entities. While the ordinary jīva soul is entrapped by material designations, threefold miseries, and the cycle of birth and death, the Supreme Lord always remains the absolute master. His incarnations appear by His internal spiritual potency, completely untouched by the material modes. By engaging in pure devotional service, or bhakti-yoga, and constantly remembering the lotus feet of the Lord, the conditioned soul can easily bypass this formidable external energy and return to the eternal spiritual reality.
- The Subordinate Maidservant: The external energy acts entirely under the supreme command of the Lord. Just as darkness cannot exist in the presence of the sun, illusion cannot stand before God.
- The Absurdity of an Entrapped God: It is illogical to claim that the Absolute Truth becomes bewildered by illusion. If God were controlled by māyā, then māyā would be supreme, completely invalidating God's omnipotence.
- The Controller and the Controlled: God is the absolute controller, while the conditioned living entities are controlled by His external agency, suffering through material bodies and worldly attachments.
- The Transcendental Incarnations: When the Supreme Lord descends, He is never forced by karma or material nature. He appears entirely through His internal spiritual potency.
- Freedom from Illusion: The stringent grip of material nature can be easily overcome. By maintaining firm determination in pure devotional service, a devotee is granted absolute immunity from the Lord's illusory energy.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: If God Were Ever Entrapped by Māyā, Māyā Would Be More Powerful Than God.
Subcategories
This category has the following 2 subcategories, out of 2 total.
D
M
Pages in category "God and Maya"
The following 21 pages are in this category, out of 21 total.
A
- All the people of the world, they're fools and rascals. Why they are fools and rascals? Now, there are two things. Vyasadeva, by his bhakti-yoga meditation, he found out that there is God and there is maya
- Although He is the Supreme Person, now, influenced by maya, He has assumed the form of a boar to please His devotees, the demigods, just as a restless child leans toward someone
- As soon as he enters the human form, the living entity is entrapped by a family tradition, nationality, customs, etc. These are all supplied by the maya of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- At any time and any stage of life one can freely chant them (names of the Lord), but we are so unfortunate that we are too misled even to adopt this simple process. This is the way of Maya, the Lord's misleading energy
E
- Everyone is controlled. Either you are controlled directly by God, or you are controlled by His agency, maya. Being controlled by maya, you spoil your life; you remain in material existence one birth after another, changing your bodies
- External energy cannot come in front of God, Krsna. This is maya. Just like darkness cannot come in front of the sun
I
- If God were ever entrapped by maya, maya would be more powerful than God. Such men say that God is all-powerful, but they do not consider that if He is all-powerful there is no possibility of His being overpowered by maya
- If one is determined that "I shall stick to the service of Krsna," maya will not touch. That is kevala bhakti. If sometimes it appears that he has deviated out of past habit, that is excused
- In Bhagavad-gita the Lord refers to maya, the external energy, which creates this material world, as mama maya, "My energy," because this energy works under the full control of the Lord
- It is by the influence of the Supreme Lord's maya that I (mother Yasoda) am wrongly thinking because I am the queen of Nanda Maharaja, all the wealth of cows and calves are my possessions and all the cowherd men & their wives are my subjects - SB 10.8.42
- It is by the influence of the Supreme Lord's maya that I (mother Yasoda) am wrongly thinking that Nanda Maharaja is my husband, that Krsna is my son - SB 10.8.42
M
- Maya, the material energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is always giving us trouble in the shape of the threefold miseries. This material energy is constituted of the three modes of material nature. BG 1972 purports
- Mayavadis believe that the Absolute Truth is ultimately impersonal. When an incarnation of God or God Himself comes, they think He is covered by maya
S
- Since the Lord appears by His internal potency, His incarnations in different species of life are not the creation of the external potency, Maya
- Such men (mayayapahrta-jnana), unable to recognize their own foolishness, never consider how it is that God can be entrapped by maya, His own illusory energy
T
- The philosophical sections of the Vedic hymns are intended to enable one to distinguish the Supreme Lord from maya
- They (Mayavadis) further say that God is imaginary, that people think of God only because of ignorance, and that when the Supreme Absolute Truth is befooled by the external energy, maya, He becomes a jiva, or living entity