Sage Vyasa Maharishi, son of Sage Parasara Maharishi, founded the Uttara Mimamsa system of philosophy. According to him, the Reality appears to our finite intelligence as the universe of time and space. When we come to realize the changeless God, we are no longer troubled by the changing world. The Reality of the Supreme appears to us as the universe through the veil of Maya. Here Maya should not be taken as to mean illusion. The universe for the Hindu is reality and not an illusion. It is only Buddhist Philosophers who taught that the world is an illusion. Maya is the mystery, the mysterious power by which God, while remaining changeless Himself, gives rise to the changing phenomenal universe. It has two aspects; one in which, it hides the real by its veil and secondly it projects a vision or object of unreal as real. So, sometimes, it is identified with the Prakrithi and it is also called Avidya or ignorance. It is the natural disability of the soul which prevents it from comprehending God as He is really is.

The natural limitations of soul caused by the avidhya are called Upaadhis. The Atman, when clothed in Upaadhis, becomes Jiva. The Jivas are clothed in five sheaths. Jivas appear separate from one another like several islands in an ocean with different fauna and flora. Like all these islands are connected to one another under the depths of the ocean, all jivas are connected. When the avidhya and the natural limitations of the body, mind and understanding are removed and when true knowledge is obtained, the individual is no longer individual. He becomes one with the Universal spirit. He who knows the Supreme Brahman truly, becomes Brahman himself. A man who has reached such a state is called Jivanmuktha. Brahman, the Absolute, after creating the elements, enters them as the Light of the soul. It is ever pure, Absolute Reality. It is the material cause as well as the instrumental cause of the universe. Brahman and the universe are not different, just as the pot is not different from the clay. Brahman develops Itself into the universe for Its own Lila or sporting, without undergoing any change and without ceasing to be Itself.