Adi Shankara · Theology

Maya: The Power That Hides the One

How does a partless, changeless Brahman come to appear as a teeming world of many things? Shankara’s answer is maya - the beginningless power of appearance, neither real nor unreal, that both veils Brahman and projects the world.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that maya is Shankara’s name for the beginningless, inexplicable power of appearance that veils Brahman and projects the world - neither fully real (it vanishes in liberation) nor unreal (it deludes us all). Reconstruct why he insists maya is ‘not-two’ with Brahman rather than a second principl…

Leads to Parmenides.

Begin this lesson →
← All lessons on Adi Shankara

epoché — a humanities education that remembers you.