Maya is not just illusion – it is also the agency that brings about illusion

The word “Maya” is often translated as illusion. While correct, this translation is not complete because Maya is much more than illusion – it is also the agency that brings about illusion. The Bhagavad-gita (07.14) refers to Maya as agency when declaring it to be Krishna’s energy. It is energy for it does the will of the supreme energetic person. Its purpose is not to keep us in illusion, but to teach the futility of the illusion of living separate from Krishna. Once this futility sinks in, we re-position ourselves as his loving servants, for that is our constitutional position as his eternal parts. The illusions that confront us during our life-journey are thus meant for a positive educational purpose. They are like the wrong options in a multiple-choice test. The presence of such options impels students to internalize their lessons, thereby choosing the right option. As long as we think of Maya as just illusion, we tend to underestimate the power of those illusions and overestimate the power of our intelligence to see through them. But human intelligence pitted against the divine illusory energy is eminently a battle of unequals – we will sooner or later end up deluded. The verse conveys this mismatch by deeming Maya formidable, even insurmountable. When we see Maya as Krishna’s illusory energy, we realize the necessity, indeed the indispensability, of internalizing the lesson that we become safe only when we are absorbed in Krishna’s loving service. Of course, we can and should use our intelligence for understanding this lesson. But the lesson is essentially a matter of the heart, not the head. Only when we redirect our heart’s love from the world towards Krishna by voluntary surrender to him, as the verse recommends, can we go beyond the illusory energy’s illusions.