maya

noun

1. A member or descendant of various peoples:
2. A member or descendant of various peoples:
3. A member or descendant of various peoples:
4. A member or descendant of various peoples:
5. (uncountable)Magic; supernatural power as held by the gods.
6. (Hinduism, uncountable)The power by which the universe is made to appear; the illusion of the phenomenal world, as opposed to its true or spiritual reality.

   “Shankara prescribed meditative reflection, through which each individual could pierce the veil of maya and come to recognize the identity between his or her essence and the universal spirit.”

name

1. The Yucatec Maya language.
2. Any of the other various Mayan languages.
3. Any of the other various Mayan languages.
4. Any of the other various Mayan languages.
5. A female given name from Hebrew of modern usage.

   “When her little friends asked her what her name was, her father replied that it was Conchita - his diminutive for Maria de la Concepción. "Con-what?" they would ask again, aware, apparently, that con in French is a fool, an idiot. So her parents started calling her Maria, which from the little girl's lips soon began to sound like Maya. "Maya!" exclaimed her father. "It's perfect. It means the greatest illusion on earth." So Maya it was from then on - Maya Walter.”

6. In Sanskrit, illusion and the power that creates it; God's physical and metaphysical creation (literally, "not this").
7. A female given name from Sanskrit used in India.

   “Eventually, Pran and Savita decided by correspondence on Maya. Its two simple syllables meant, among other things: the goddess Lakshmi, illusion, fascination, art, the goddess Durga, kindness, and the name of the mother of Buddha. It also meant: ignorance, delusion, fraud, guile, and hypocrisy; but no one who named their daughter Maya ever paid any attention to those pejorative possibilities. - - - 'Why ever not, Ma?' said Meenakshi.'It's a very Bengali name, a very nice name.'”

8. The mother of Gautama Buddha.