Māra and Śiva: Tricksters of Illusion, Teachers of Liberation
Abstract
This paper explores the trickster as a philosophical and sonic modality of consciousness through the figures of Śiva, Krishna, Nārada, and Māra. Moving beyond Western binaries of good and evil, truth and deception, it engages non-Abrahamic ontologies in which disruption, illusion, and mischief are not oppositional to knowledge, but constitutive. Trickster logic unfolds abductively—neither inductively from part to whole nor deductively from whole to part, but as lateral motion, a vibration without fixed destination. Through myth, music, and philosophical reflection, the essay argues that sound, rhythm, and play enact a sacred destabilization of dualism—an epistemic architecture that divides the world into oppositional forms. Against this logic of separation, the tricksters of Hindu and Buddhist traditions embody an intelligence attuned to liminality, ambiguity, and transformation. Their presence compels us to rethink the foundations of knowing, being, and becoming—not through systematization, but resonance.
Keywords: Trickster, Śiva, Krishna, Nārada, Māra, māyā, illusion, Hindu cosmology, liberation, linguistic anthropology