WHAT IS MAYA AS UNDERSTOOD BY SAGES AND SCIENTISTS NOW DECODED WITH HELP OF QUANTUM PHYSICS.
WRITTEN BY BATTULA VINAY KUMAR AND DR M VANAMALLI

Maya: how Quantum Physics explains what is and was written and understood by our Ancient sages many millions of years ago. Thus Non Material Science now only acknowledges What our Ancient Sages Knew About Reality millions of years ago.
The word Maya is a word which is very familiar to the western and eastern world, but very few know what it actually means. It is a word which was used by the rishis (sages) of ancient India to describe the nature of this universe of changing forms. The rishis have always been telling us that matter is not as real or as solid as we think. It is only an illusion projected by our senses. They called It "maya" or the magical creative power of the "Brahman".

WHAT SRI SATHYA SAI HAS TO SAY ABOUT MAYA
Swami, what is this Maya [illusion, supposed to be created by God]?
There is no such thing as Maya; it is all one's imagination. To think that you are the body is Maya. You mistakenly believe that you are something [body] that you really are not; that is Maya. Truly speaking, there is no Maya; it is all one's imagination. Maya is like the shadow of a tree. What casts the shadow? The branches of the tree and not the rays of the Sun. If there are no branches, there is also no shadow. The shadow called Maya arises from the branches called human desires. If there are no desires, then there is no Maya as well!
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Matter is Energy in Motion
With the dawn of the 20th century, we find that physics started to support this view. With one squiggle of his pen, Einstein exploded the deterministic, mechanical view of matter - E=MC² - "Matter is energy in motion." This created a revolution in the mind of western scientists.
The theory of relativity showed us that we can only know the relations between objects, and quantum theory declared that we can only see probabilities. What we think of as solid matter is an illusion created by our eyes. In fact, it is the "maya" which the rishis talked about. Matter is actually made up of particles and waves that merely indicate the different types of knowledge that can be derived from that object. Therefore, modern physics deals with possibilities or probabilities and not with certainties! Scientists finally realized that our senses do not give us a true picture of Reality. This is exactly what the rishis of ancient India had been telling us more than five thousand years ago.

Observation and a Solid Stage
Maya is that state when the mind confuses the myriad forms of the world and takes them for real without apprehending the underlying unity that binds them all together. What gives form and purpose to the drama we enjoy on the TV is the firm, unchanging, pure white screen beneath. The screen itself has no qualities. It is unmoving and unchanging, but without this solid support, the play of light and shade which we are watching would have no form and no meaning.
Similarly, the drama of our life and the drama of the world taking place in front of our eyes would have no meaning without the solid stage of the steady, unchanging state of the Pure Consciousness of the Brahman on which it is being enacted.
The quantum world, which is a strange, unbelievable dance of particles, solidifies into a semblance of concrete reality when an observation is made by someone. In the absence of an observer, the atomic world is only a possibility. The particles materialize only when we look for them.
Another strange fact is that when scientists looked for the location of a particle they were able to find it at a particular place, but they could not gauge its speed. When they wanted to gauge its speed, the particle turns into a wave and they could see it in motion. However, the scientist could not fix both its location and speed at the same time. Both depended on the observer! We cannot observe a thing without influencing it.
This takes us back to the truth which had been declared by the rishis: that each of us is really creating our own world. Modern science has corroborated the statements of the rishis that this is actually a shadow world, which can be called real only when the consciousness of the observer comes into play. Normally quantum particles act in a haphazard fashion of chaos and disorder; but when individual consciousness is focused on them, they lose their individuality and begin to act as a single unit. This coherence extends into the world. Thus, human consciousness represents the greatest form of order known in nature and can help to shape and create order in the world.
In meditation, and especially in the state of " Samadhi" (a super conscious state), the brain touches the zero point field of quantum physics, which is known as the chitta in Sanskrit, in which state the brain has perfect coherence.
The vital thing here is the participation of the individual. Classical theory asserted that the observer is the one who stands safely behind a glass wall and watches what goes on without participating in anything since it was thought that the observer's views would interfere and mess up the experiment. This is impossible according to quantum physics.

Creating Our Own Worlds
The modern physicist corroborates the claim of the rishis that the world exists only because we who are the observers are actively participating in it. The world is a creation of the human mind. Each of us creates our own world. These words are used both by Vedanta and by the quantum physicists. Vedanta says that the universe is an illusion created by the participators in this drama taking place on the stage of the universe!
The zero point field is the most fundamental state of matter and is a heaving sea of inexhaustible energy, which is called the chitta in Hindu terminology. This is a recording medium of everything in the universe through which everything can communicate with each other. So basically, we are all connected with every single thing in the universe, right from the stars to the earthworms! In fact, we resonate with the universe.

Unchangeable in a Changing World
The question now comes up as to how the Supreme, unchangeable Being of the Brahman turned into the changing world. Vedanta explains this unique phenomenon by postulating "maya" as the cause of the superimposition.
Maya has two powers- one to veil and the other to project. It veils the nature of the Brahman and projects pluralities on the screen of the non-dual. We can understand this only through examples. Light exists, darkness does not. The latter is only the absence of the former. Although darkness does not exist in reality, it has empirical existence. Similarly, the world also has empirical reality.
According to the theory of relativity, continuous activity is the very essence of matter. Hence in Hinduism, maya is described as a state of "becoming" whereas Brahman is the state of "Being". The Puranas describe this relationship in a very poetic way. Shiva in his essence is the Absolute and is known as Bhava or "Being", whereas his consort Parvati, who is the essence of maya, is known as Bhavani or "Becoming." There can be no change without expenditure of energy. The Sanskrit word for energy is "Shakti" and this also refers to maya, as we have seen.
Hinduism, with its genius for personification, says that Shakti is the feminine principle of Brahman and is co-existent with it. It is the principle of action through which the inert Brahman appears to project itself into the multifarious forms of the world. Each god of the trinity has his own "Shakti" - Shiva and Parvati, Lakshmi and Narayana, Brahma and Saraswati. Thus, we find that scientific facts are neatly interwoven into the stories of the Puranas.

In order to create this universe GOD performs three roles namely
CREATOR= BHRAMA WHO NEEDS KNOWLEDGE HENCE THE FEMININE ASPECT OF THE ABSOLUTE TAKES THE FORM OF SARASWATHI GODDESS OF WISDOM.
SUSTAINER =VISHNU WHO NEEDS WEALTH TO SUSTAIN THIS UNIVERSE HENCE THE FEMININE ASPECT OF THE ABSOLUTE TAKES THE FORM OF LAKSHMI OR GODDESS OF WEALTH HERE WEALTH DOES NOT REFER TO MONEY IT REFERS TO THE EIGHT FORM OF WEALTH NAMELY
ADI LAKSHMI OR MAHALAKSHMI: 'Adi' means eternal. This form of the Goddess signifies the never ending or eternal nature of the Goddess. This refers to the fact that wealth is endless. It has been there since the beginning of time and it will be there till the end of time.
GAJ LAKSHMI: ' Gaj' means elephant. This form of Lakshmi symbolises the the vehicles that we use for transportation. It is believed that this form of Goddess Lakshmi helped Indra to regain His kingdom from the depth of the ocean.
DHANA LAKSHMI: 'Dhana' means wealth in the form of money or gold. It is the usual form of wealth that is desired by most of us. By worshipping this form of Goddess Lakshmi, one can attain great riches and wealth.
VIJAY LAKSHMI: 'Vijay' means victory. Vijay Lakshmi form of the Goddess signifies courage, fearlessness and victory in everything one does. This form of wealth strengthens our character and makes us successful in all our ventures.
DHAIRYA LAKSHMI: 'Dhairya' means patience. Worshipping Dhairya Lakshmi gives us the strength to endure all the hardships of our lives with patience. This form of wealth is extremely important to face the good times as well as bad times with equal ease.
DHANYA LAKSHMI: 'Dhanya' means food grains. Since food is the basic neccessity of our life, worshipping Dhanya Lakshmi is of utmost importance. Worshipping this form of the Goddess is necessary to obtain food and remain nourished.
VIDYA LAKSHMI: 'Vidya' means knowledge. To acquire all kinds of knowledge and skills, one must devotedly worship Vidya Lakshmi.
SANTAN LAKSHMI: 'Santan' means children. Santan Lakshmi is the Goddess of progeny and bestower of children. Children are our wealth and the basic unit of a family. So, Goddess Lakshmi is worshipped in the form of Santan Lakshmi to beget children and continue the name of the family.
These are the eight form of Goddess Lakshmi or Ashtalakshmi.
AND SHIVA THE DESTROYER IN ORDER TO START AFRESH THE CREATION = SHIVA WHO NEEDS POWER OR STRENGTH HENCE THE FEMININE ASPECT OF THE ABSOLUTE TAKES THE FORM OF SHAKTHI OR GODDESS OF STRENGTH
Shakti signifies "power, ability, strength, might, effort, energy, capability" she is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe in Hinduismand Shaktism.
Shakti is the concept or personification of divine feminine creative power, sometimes referred to as "The Great Divine Mother" in Hinduism. As a mother, she is known as "Adi Shakti" or "Adi Parashakti". On the earthly plane, Shakti most actively manifests through female embodiment and creativity/fertility, though it is also present in males in its potential, unmanifest form.
Hindus believe that Shakti is both responsible for creation and the agent of all change. Shakti is cosmic existence as well as liberation, its most significant form being the Kundalini Shakti, a mysterious psychospiritual force.

Many as One
Maya is thus the enchantress who has cast this spell on us and made us believe in the solid reality of this universe of forms. She has made us believe in the reality of the forms and forget that formless that is upholding the forms. The only way to break free from the spell of the enchantress is to realize that all the forms we see are aspects of that one Reality, just as all the rays of light emanate from just one sun. This is known as moksha or liberation and is the goal of Hinduism. Liberation is when the individual experiences that he or she is nothing but that Brahman. This is the very essence of Hinduism.
This experience is possible only because the essence of that pure consciousness is embedded in the very core of the human being. The Upanishads have already told us that the "atman" (individual soul) equals the Brahman or the cosmic soul. The true nature of that consciousness is revealed to us only when maya is removed from the mind through right perception.
Many different types of yogas are given in Hinduism in order to realize this all important fact. They all attempt to unite the many with the one. Thus, all yoga is an attempt by the human mind to free itself from the clutches of maya and experience the liberating unity of the Brahman.

Overcoming Maya
The sage of Arunachala known as Ramana Maharishi advocated the method as "self enquiry" in order to remove the veil of maya. "Who am I?" is the question that he asked his disciples to use. By negating all those parts of ourselves that are transitory or superficial, we will come to the realization that we are nothing other than that Supreme Consciousness of the Brahman.
This is the final liberation from all the fears that haunt the mind of the human being. If this knowledge is made a part of our everyday life, all our basic hang-ups like the fear of death and extreme attachment to people, places, and objects can be banished forever.
Our inquiry into the true nature of our selves will make us realize that the Supreme Self is present in all beings irrespective of any perceived differences. Meditation and yoga can only give us occasional glimpses of that Supreme Self, but the abiding knowledge and realization that our existence is not separate from that universal existence, can at one stroke remove all our mental agonies.
This can only be achieved through sustained self enquiry. This is the only way by which we can achieve a victory over the completely illusory, yet totally powerful, state known as maya!