The Maya Cloak!!

Maya is an appearance. It is semblance. It is the illusory power of God.

Maya means "that which is not" (i.e. illusion).
It refers to accepting the temporary as having lasting value, and looking for enduring happiness in this world.
Through cultivating the quality of goodness the soul may rise to transcendence and escape the clutches of maya.
A very popular story from the Mahabharata come to mind at this point of time.Duryodhana enters the Maya Sabha and loses his way and is confused and envious.Seeing him thus Draupadi laughs at him.Duryodhana feels insulted and is furious,and vows to take revenge on the Pandava clan for their audacity and power to display their wealth and belittle him in the presence of women.
The Mahabharata wonderfully illustrates how human beings can bring misery and destruction to themselves and to others through their weaknesses,egoism and selfishness.
We spend our lives in this world enveloped by illusion in a state of ignorance about ourselves.We fail to discriminate betwen truth and false and engage ourselves in egoistic struggles and lose our connection with God and our divinity.
That which appears to be true but is not true is Maya.We all know for sure that when we are born in this world,death is certain,but we think we will live forever.The perishable objects give us so much pleasure and we hold on to them.
Markandeya puranam illustrates how Sage Markandeya had a glimpse of Maya....
One evening, Markandeya sat on the bank of the river Subhadraa, to do the evening Sandhya Vandan worship. It seemed to him that the sea was rising on all sides, coming towards him, flooding everything in its path. The water reached him and swept him away, but he did not die. He saw the whole world submerged in water. Sometimes, some creatures of the sea would swallow him and sometimes some other creatures would swallow him, but they would throw him out again. He wandered thus for several millions of year.Suddenly, amongst all the confusion, Markandeya noticed a banyan leaf floating on the ocean, tossed by the waves. On this unlikely raft lay a beautiful and adorable child, suckling his right toe, unperturbed by the calamity that had befallen the world.
Markandeya saw that the baby was sucking his own big toe. The Mahatmas have said, about this, that the baby was the Lord Bala-gopal himself. He was sucking his big toe, to check what sweetness it has, which makes people drink the water touched by it.
When Markandeya went close to this baby, he was sucked in with the air, when the baby took a breath. Inside, he saw hundreds of thousand of universes and all that had been consumed by the deluge - the skies, the seas, the earth, gods, demons, humans, animals and plants. So mush so, that he even had a glimpse of his own Ashram on the banks of the Subhadra River. He saw himself sitting in meditation. Markandeya thus realized that the child was none other than the cosmic god (Narayana) who had withdrawn the world into himself.
Since Saint Markandeya, the son of Mrikand Rishi, was worshipping the Lord, the Lord was pleased with him, ready to give any boons Markandeya would wish for. Markandeya had no material desire whatsoever, but when the Lord Narayana appeared before him and told him to ask for a boon since He was pleased with Markandeya stuti. Markandeya prayed, “Sir, I have obtained your vision, and desire nothing else. However, I want to see what your Maya is. Please grace me with a glimpse of your Maya.
”The Lord was quite surprised to hear Markandeya’s request. However, he said, “All right, you will have a glimpse.”

Then Markandeya emerged again, when the baby exhaled. When he went to bow down to the baby, he realized that there was no baby, and no other scene. He was back at the same spot, on the same day, at the same time, as when he started his Sandhya Vandan, his worship of the Lord.

Markandeya thought, “Oh, what was all that which I saw?” Then he understood that it was the play of Maya, which he had seen. Maya hid the Paramatma, hid the truth, and showed - like a magic show - that, which did not exist.

There is another very beautiful story too that comes to mind at this point.In Devi Bhagavatam it is mentioned that once Narada asked Vishnu about the secret nature of Maya (Illusion).
Lord Vishnu told Sage Narada that,there is nothing real in this world and what all
we see is due to the playful acts of Maya Devi. Narada did not understand it and
requested Lord Vishnu to make him experience the powers of Maya Devi. Vishnu took
sage Narada along with him and they reached a very deep forest in which there was a
very big lake. Lord Vishnu requested Sage Narada to take bath in that lake. Narada kept his Veena called Mahathi and the deer skin on which he used to meditate on the shore and entered the lake to take bath .Suddenly Sage Narada was transformed into a very pretty lady. She came out of the lake and was enjoying the beauty of nature around her.
At that time a king reached near the shore. Attracted by her divine
beauty he requested the lady to marry him. She also agreed and married him. Times
rolled by. After 12 years of very happy married life they got a son .Then onwards, every two years she produced a child. And within another 24 years, she
became mother of 12 children. Later she became mother for another eight children. All
her children reached adulthood and married. And she got several grand children. At this time an enemy king invaded the country.In the battle most of his children and grand children were killed. The King ran for his life. Then he left his country and reached the same lake where Lord Vishnu in the form of a Brahmin was waiting there. The Brahmin asked him to take bath in the lake. Narada regained his original form. He then could realize what all happened to him. Lord Vishnu then told him that all that happened was an illusion, which appeared real and was due to Maya.
Jai Gurudev.