Māyā as Cosmic Ignorance: A Philosophical Inquiry into Avidyā in Advaita Vedānta
Research Review Journal of Social Science December 31, 2023 Sandip Kumar Pati
Advaita Vedānta's concept of Māyā is a sophisticated philosophical theory explaining the appearance of plurality in a fundamentally non-dual world, not merely an illusion. Māyā operates at the cosmic level as a principle projecting multiplicity onto the unity of Brahman, while avidyā functions individually as epistemic ignorance hindering self-realization. The world exists as a dependent appearance rooted in consciousness, neither wholly real nor unreal. Knowledge eliminates ignorance, revealing the non-dual identity of the self and Brahman, leading to liberation (mokṣa). Advaita Vedānta thus offers an epistemological approach to metaphysics where freedom results from altered understanding, remaining relevant to contemporary debates on reality, knowledge, and existence.