Within the Dvaita Vedānta of Madhvācārya, Māyā is regarded as a real and positive power of Viṣṇu, not as a mere illusion that renders the world unreal. It is understood as one of the Lord’s śaktis, a genuine, divine apparatus through which the universe is created, sustained, and governed. The plurality of God, souls (jīvas), and matter (prakṛti) is therefore ontologically real, and Māyā serves to manifest and regulate this real multiplicity. Rather than negating the world, Māyā provides the material and instrumental basis for its ordered existence under the complete control of Viṣṇu.

In relation to perception, Dvaita holds that the world disclosed through the senses is fundamentally real and that perception is, in general, a valid means of knowledge. Errors such as mistaking a rope for a snake are attributed to cognitive mistake (bhrama) and the limitations of the finite mind, not to a universal cosmic illusion that falsifies the entire field of experience. Souls are subject to ignorance (ajñāna), karma, and inherent limitations, and these factors can obscure or distort understanding, especially regarding the true dependence of all things on Viṣṇu. Māyā thus sets the stage within which finite beings experience a real world, yet often fail to grasp its proper relation to the Supreme.

From this standpoint, bondage arises not because reality itself is illusory, but because souls are entangled in real karmic conditions within a universe administered through Māyā. This divine power structures the conditions under which ignorance and misapprehension persist, particularly the failure to recognize the eternal distinction between God, souls, and matter. Liberation (mokṣa) is attained through correct knowledge (tattva-jñāna) of these real distinctions, together with the grace of Viṣṇu, whereby the obscuring factors associated with Māyā are removed for the liberated soul. Even then, Māyā as the Lord’s creative and governing power continues to function for the cosmos, while the freed soul comes to apprehend more clearly the enduring, dualistic order that Dvaita affirms.