I think the OP asks a very good, yet very old question. I not sure about the answer myself (yet) but I have lately been reading alot of arthur schopenhauer who was a german philosopher influenced by hinduism and it's concept of the maya(basically saying the wolrd is a dream or a illusion).

But i'm not really doing justice to indian philosophy or schopenhauer, so I suggest everybody really read his magnum opus: the world as will and representation.