Maya is not illusion; it is the creator of Illusion. Maya is not false; it is that which gives false impressions. Maya is not unreal; it is that which makes the real appear unreal and the unreal appear real. Maya is not duality; it is that which causes duality.
It is not possible to understand Maya through the limited intellect; it is as unfathomable as God. God is unfathomable, ununderstandable; so is Maya unfathomable, ununderstandable. Thus it is said that Maya is God’s shadow. Where a person is, there is his shadow also. Where God is, there is this inscrutable Maya. Though God and Maya are inscrutable for the limited intellect working in the domain of duality, they can be thoroughly understood in their true nature in the final knowledge of Realization. The enigma of the existence of Maya can never be finally solved until after Realization, when it is known that Maya does not exist in Reality.
Not until the shedding of the last vestige of Maya-created falsehood is God known as the Truth. Only when Maya is completely overcome does there arise the supreme knowledge that God is the only Truth. God alone is real. All that is not God, all that is impermanent and finite, all that seems to exist within the domain of duality, is false.
-Extracted from Discourses, 7th Ed., 382-83
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“Reality pulls you toward Itself, and illusion pulls you toward itself. If you let go the pull of Reality, you get drowned in the ocean of illusion. If you lean toward both, you get crushed. So let go the pull of illusion through love and become One with Reality.” (www.lordmeher.org, p3520)