Vedanta designates the individual ego as maya. The role of maya is to soften the glare of Reality and to create a dream world where fact is diluted by fiction. Maya is not a peculiar concept of Vedanta. The Buddhistic tradition calls it Mara; the Taoist tradition says it is being "out of harmony with Tao;" the Judeo-Christian, Islamic and Zoroastrian traditions personify maya, calling it Satan, Iblis, and Ahriman; the Platonists refer to it simply as delusion. Things and beings in the realm of maya are not non-existent, though they are illusory. They are relatively real, that is, real for a short time. God as Pure Spirit is the Absolute Reality. The beings and things of the relative universe appear real because they reflect the light of the Absolute. The message of Vedanta has two rhythms: "All this is verily Brahman" and "That thou art;" that is, God is both the Absolute and the relative Reality. One represents the dizzy height of mystical realization, the other its counter part, its humanistic expression. One is Knowledge, the other intimate Knowledge.
http://www.ramakrishna.org
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