Within the Smārta tradition grounded in Advaita Vedānta, māyā is understood as the mysterious, creative power (śakti) of Brahman that makes the one, formless Reality appear as the many. It is not an independent principle, but entirely dependent on Brahman, through which the non-dual, nirguṇa Brahman appears as the universe of names and forms, including all deities. Māyā is described as neither absolutely real nor absolutely unreal, but as anirvacanīya—indefinable—because the world has empirical validity while ultimately lacking independent, absolute reality. This power both manifests the cosmos and simultaneously veils the underlying non-dual truth of Brahman.

From the standpoint of spiritual experience, māyā functions as avidyā, the ignorance that leads beings to identify with body and mind and to perceive themselves and the world as separate from Brahman. Under the influence of this ignorance, the diverse deities and the multiplicity of the world are taken as ultimately distinct, rather than as expressions of the one Reality. Smartists therefore regard the many gods and goddesses—Śiva, Viṣṇu, Devī, Gaṇeśa, Sūrya, and others—as saguna manifestations of Brahman appearing through māyā, valid for devotion and worship yet not ultimately separate from the attributeless Absolute.

Spiritual practice in this tradition aims not at destroying māyā as a second, opposing principle, but at seeing through it by right understanding. Through jñāna, along with worship and other disciplines performed with proper insight, the seeker discerns the unchanging Brahman behind the changing appearances produced by māyā. Liberation (mokṣa) is the recognition that the apparent distinction between worshipper, worshipped, and act of worship is itself a product of māyā, and that individual consciousness is none other than Brahman. When this non-dual truth is realized, māyā is known as a divine, provisional appearance, and its power to bind is transcended.