Maya (māyā)

Maya is the power by which what is one appears as many, and by which the world presents itself as solid, separate and permanent when it is none of those things. In the Mahabharata it is both a metaphysical principle and a plot device: Krishna calls it his own divine power in the Gita, while the illusory floors and invisible walls of Mayasura's hall trip Duryodhana into the humiliation that starts a war. The last book turns it on the hero himself, when Yudhishthira's glimpse of hell proves to be the final illusion he must see through.