Exploring the Veil of Maya: Perception, Reality, and the Aesthetics of Literature and Art

Our cognitive abilities are like a pair of naturally tinted glasses; the world we see is presented to us through these colored lenses. In the philosophy of Schopenhauer, there’s a significant concept: the Veil of Maya. Simply put, it’s a gigantic curtain that envelops the cosmos but goes unnoticed by ordinary individuals. This concept originates from ancient Indian religious scriptures and reveals a startling truth: Do you think the mountains, rivers, land, sun, moon, and stars are all genuinely real? Well, you’re mistaken; you’ve been deceived! In reality, the entire universe we perceive is just an illusion conjured by the Maya, a divine magician; it’s all fake, and once the divine magician withdraws their magic, the universe disappears.

The true world behind this facade is something we can never grasp through reason. The real world, or the appearance of objects in the real world, is what Kant calls the thing-in-itself, what Schopenhauer calls the will, and what Plato would refer to as the Idea.

To simplify the issue, imagine if all your senses except sight ceased to exist, and you were left only with the ability to see. Picture yourself wearing red glasses for your entire life; the lenses are convex, so everything you see is not only red but also distorted. The distortion follows a pattern: depending on the angle and distance, you gradually learn how objects deform, forming a scientific cognitive system. When I stand before you, if…