Posted on: 14 Dec 2021
[Ms. Laxmi Thrylokya asked:- Swami, Does it mean that Yoga Maaya or the unimaginable power of God covers God due to which God is invisible and unimaginable to all the souls (in continuation with Your previous answers to my questions)? Are Maayaa and Atma Maayaa are one and the same?]
Swami replied:- Ātma Māyā means My Māyā. Both Māyā (world) and Yoga Māyā (unimaginable power) belong to God only and hence, the word Ātma Māyā may refer to Māyā or Yoga Māyā, which is decided as per the context. Here, in this verse of the Gītā (Sambhavāmyātma māyayā) ‘My Māyā’ refers to world only because based on the world (the physical body, which is a tiny part of world) only God express Himself as human incarnation. The word Māyā is in Trutiyaa Vibhakti, which means both senses:- ‘based on’ (Hetau tṛtīyā) and instrumental (Karaṇe tṛtīyā). This means that based on the visible and imaginable human body, which is important instrument for the expression of God, the human body or tiny part of world is taken as the basis and instrument. As per this context, the word Māyā is to be taken in the sense of world, which is derived from the meaning that the world is inherently unreal but appearing as real due to the gifted reality from God.
In the verse “Yogamāyā samāvṛtaḥ” the word Yoga Māyā refers to the unimaginable power of unimaginable God. Both Yoga Māyā and God are unimaginable and hence, both result as one unimaginable God only as taken by the Vedānta school. As per Śākteya school the resultant unimaginable item is the unimaginable power or Yoga Māyā only. When this is the case, why God told that He is unimaginable being covered by Yoga Māyā just like Sun is covered by the cloud? The answer for this is that even though there is one unimaginable item only (because any number of unimaginable items form only one unimaginable item), which may be called as unimaginable God or Unimaginable power, to make our worldly mind to understand easily, the worldly norm is adopted, which is calling both possessor of power and power differently like Sun and Sunlight. You should be very careful in calling the one unimaginable item as two unimaginable items for the sake of better understanding based on the worldly hypothetical assumption that Sun and Sunlight are different.
When God says that He is unimaginable because He is covered by unimaginable power, it clearly means that there is only one unimaginable item (unimaginable God or unimaginable power), which is itself unimaginable. That one item is unimaginable by itself and does not need a second unimaginable item to cover it to make it unimaginable. The inherently unreal world (Māyā) cannot cover the unimaginable God to make Him to become unimaginable. After all, the world itself is unreal and became real due to the reality granted by God. This context is about Krishna, who is the human incarnation appearing as the external human being to all human souls inside whom the invisible and imaginable God Datta is existing in merged state and in God Datta the invisible and unimaginable God exists in merged state. This verse means that God Datta in the human incarnation is not visible to all human souls, but, visible to certain specially devoted souls. For example, Krishna showed God Datta in Him to Arjuna through cosmic vision (Viśvarūpam). In such divine vision, the central three faces are of God Brahma, God Vishnu and God Shiva followed by the faces of other incarnations on both sides. Hence, this vision is essentially the vision of God Datta only. If you take the meaning of ‘sarvasya’ as anybody, the meaning of this verse results “I am not visible and imaginable to anybody”. This means that the unimaginable God present in God Datta in merged state is referred and such an imaginable God is not visible and imaginable to any human soul.