The Doctrine of Maya - Prabhudatt Sastri 1911

8/13/2019 The Doctrine of Maya - Prabhudatt Sastri 1911

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BUTLER t TiMlTHE SELWOOD PRINTING WOES,

Fum AND LONDON,


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PREFACEof Maya is the pivotal principle in

the Advaita Philosophy the final pronouncementof Indian speculation on the conception of Realityand Appearance. During the last thirty years agood deal has been written on the Vedanta, andnaturally this doctrine has also been treated of,though only in passing and by the way. That it isrichly^ supported in the later Vedanta is alreadyan established fact, but a number of writers seemto conclude, rather hastily, that it is not the genuineproduct of the early speculation of the Upanisads,but has been later added to the original Vedkntaby Sankara and his followers. Some critics believethat it is imported from Buddhism and receiveshardly any countenance from the Upanisads. Thepoint is still debated, and it is only with a view tocontribute a little towards a clearer understandingon this problem that I undertook to examine theUpanisads as minutely and as fully as I could,always relying upon the original texts more thanthe many more or less slipshod translations whichare to be found. Hitherto these treatises have


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vi PREFACEbeen looked upon as paradoxical, inconsistentand unsystematic. Scholars 'nave only dashed atthem to get out some meaning, but have hardlyattempted to see if there existed in them an innerprinciple of unity and system. Deussen has, tilcourse, indicated in bis Geschtchte the evolution 4fthought within the Upamsads, and has attemptedto base their chronology on such internal evideaafc.Working independently on the original texts of &Upamsads, I have also reached practically the sameconclusion, hence in Chapter II have enlarged anddeveloped that scheme with the aid of all the moreimportant passages bearing on each point. Mymethod has been analytical, more appropriatelysynthetico-analytic ; I have not stated a factdogmatically, but have in every instance supportedit with appropriate references, an examination ofwhich will lead us inductively to the establishedconclusion. To those who do not hold the sameview as I, a statement here and there may appeara little dogmatic, but that hardly touches me, sinceI have kept out all questions of personal belief andhave only made an honest attempt to treat thequestion scientifically. To press one's own per-sonal belief and point of view in a scientific inquiryvitiates, I believe, the conclusions to be arrived at.On the question whether the conception of Mayais found in the literature from Sankara down to thepresent day, all opinions concur. The point to beinvestigated is how far and to what extent the con-


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PREFACE Tiiception is to be traced in the earlier literature beforethe time of Sarikara(who flourished about a thou-sand years before his spiritual disciple, Schopen-hauer). Hence I have confined my inquiry to theVedic literature, especially the Upanisads, andhave earned my investigation down to Sahkara.My conclusions are (i) that the conception of Mayais as old as some of the later books of the Rgvedainhere its forms are clearly noticeable, and that itgradually developed through the speculation of theUpanisads, and passing through the hands ofGaudapada and Sankara was* crystallized into atechnical form, elaborated more and more as timewent on ; (2) that the word Maya, in the senseof

illusion

of course, occurs later for the first

tune, in the Svetasvatara Upanisad (iv. 10) ; and(3f that most of the critics of Maya have startedwith gratuitously assuming Maya to be a concretereality, standing face to face with the Absolute asit were, a tertium quid between the Absolute andthe Universe and this has made then- whole criti-cism futile and irrelevant. Some again have criti-cised it while perfectly ignoring one of its chiefprinciples, which, expressed in modern Kantianphrase, would run: The transcendental idealityof the world does not deprive it of its empiricalreality.

Chapter I is more or less introductory, as it isintended to help indirectly towards a thoroughgrasp of the idea of Maya. The philology of the


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Tiii PREFACEword is not within the strict scope of my essay, butI have collected some suitable materials which mayhelp to give an insight into the gradual transitionof meaning of the word itself. In Chapter II Ihave attempted to trace the development of theconception, apart from the word. I do not, baaf*ever, claim that the internal system of the Upafli^sads as sketched there, the transition of the variptttstages of thought, etc., is to be looked upqp Its asultimate scheme or the only possible scheme. Butsurely it is one of the possible systematic ways oftreating the Upanisads, consistent and coherentas far as it goes ; and as yet I know of no betterscheme. In the same chapter I have given a verybrief analysis of Gaudapada's Kankas on the Man-dukya Upanisad, so far as they bear on the subject.This has its own justification, since the book 'isunfortunately not so well known, and even thosewho know it cursorily do not always understandit correctly. Some of its epigrammatic stanzashave been erroneously construed so as to counte-nance either the doctrine of Sunyavada or that ofthe reality of the world. I have selected the mosttypical as well as the most difficult passages, which,J may hope, will remove doubts on this point. Itseems to me perfectly clear that Gaudapada wasa thoroughgoing idealist and a worthy precursorof Sahkara. Then in Chapter III I have examinedin brief the fundamental objections of the threeother schools within the Vedanta, especially those


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I PREFACEof the Theistic Idealism of RSmanuja. Theseobjections have nevdr before been collected togetherand discussed in reference to the doctrine of My&proper. The brevity in this part of the work wasintended in order not to make the essay unneces-sarily long. I had a mind, however, to appendipther chapter on the analogies of the Conception

i in European philosophy, especially in thePlato, Plotmus, Berkeley, Kant, andBut in the present volume I havet out, since it was felt that the present essay

is in a way complete in itself, arid that the additionalpart, which would have taken a considerable lengthin itself, is not necessary for the purpose.

I have given my own translation of passageswhich in my opinion have not been quite accuratelyreftdered in the current translations. I have em-ployed the words appearance and illusion rather indiscriminately m translating the word maya, though I am conscious of the subtledifference in the two conceptions. The word illusionhas been most current in this connexion. Person-ally I would prefer the term appearance. Theworld, says the Maya theory in its correct inter-pretation, is an appearance, not a mere illusion,since the latter as such is impossible. There aresome passages where the latter conception seems tobe held; e.g., mdyamatram if rendered as amere illusion

would* imply this. But as I haveshown in some detail .ith reference to passage^


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c PREFACEErom the Chandogya Upanisad, this was not exactlywhat was meant by the old indian thinkers. Idold that even if some of them really thought so,they were mistaken, and their ultra-rationalistictemper is to account for that. The BrhadS-ranyaka Upanisad emphatically proclaims that theAtman is the only reality and that all plurality ia>ta me^re matter of words ; the Chandogya Upan%W^|instead of starting with the Atman, does so iritirthe world, and comes to the same conclusion fromthis standpoint as well, viz., that the world is strictlyspeaking the Atman? itself, since there is no otherexistence but the Atman. These two positionscorrespond to Schopenhauer's parallel sayings :(i) that the word is my Vorstellung, (2) thatit is my Wille. As limited by space, tune, andcausality it is an appearance, but in its own natureit is the Atman.My best thanks are due to Professor Paul Deus-

sen (Kiel), the Rev Dr J. Estlin Carpenter, Pro-fessor A. A. Macdonell and Professor J. A. Smith(Oxford), for their various useful suggestions I amalso grateful to Dr. F. H. Bradley, Dr. H. Rashdall,Dr. F. C. S. Schiller, Rev. L. P. Jacks (Oxford),Professor Henry Jones (Glasgow) and ProfessorRudolf Eucken (Jena), who were kind enough togive me opportunities to discuss with them thesubject of Maya in the light of European philosophyin order to remove some of my difficulties. I havealso to thank Dr. F. W. Thomas, Librarian, India


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PREFACE fl

Office, Professor L D, Barnett, of the British

manuscripts,To Professor Barnett I am further

;tmg the proof sheets,

PRABHUDUTTSHASTRL

January, 1911


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CONTENTSPAGE

[ACE. V

CHAPTER IIISTORY OF THE WORD MAYA * . . 1-32

Introductory Bothkngk and Roth on MayaGeldner Uhlenbeck Grassmann MomerWilbams-The Nigbantu and the NiruktaConclusions so far The various forms of theword arranged in order of their frequency ofoccurrence References to R.V. Hymns ofR V where the word occurs Meaning of theword in RV Lndwig, Rosen Sayana'sexplanations The idea of

Power as Will

distinguished from that of Physical Power Rare occurrence of the word in Y V and S V.---Reference & AV.-The Brahmanas TheUpanisads-Gaadapada's Kankas - Bada-rftyana's Sfltras Ankara's- BhSsya-Philo-sophical and Popular meanings Etymo-logy Two-fold Conception of Maya Inter-

CHAPTER II)EVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPTION OF MAYA. 33-110

Germsfof the Idea in R.V. x. 139, etc.-Searchafter Unity The Brahmanas and the Upani-sads Importance of the Bfh. Up.-Yijflavai-

ziii


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CONTENTSPAGE

kya's Idealism-Metaphysical and Empiricalstandpoints Idea of AccommodationThe Upamsads as a system-The stages ofPure Idealism, Pantheism, Cosmogomsm,Theism and Materialism, etc -Quotationsin support Discussion of the Idea in theBhagavadgJta-Gaudapada, and Sankara-General view of the modem way of interpre-

-Recapitulation

OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE WITHIN THEVEDANTA . 111-138 '

The four schools of the Vedanta-Their funda-mental doctnne in relation to Maya-Rama-nuja's cnticism of Maya-Examination ofhis arguments Their chief fallacy Stand-point of Vallabha and Madhva Other moreimportant objections to the Theory Recapi-tulationConclusion.


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CHAPTER IHISTORY OF THE WORD MAYA

| is one of the most important and prominent

la the vocabulary of the Vedanta philosophy.I an unalterable and fixed meaning through-

fthe history of Indian thought, our task wouldhave been lighter and we should have been saved thelabour of writing this chapter, But as it is, theword IB very fluid, and has at different times assumedvarious shapes of meaning. What it meant in theVedic literature seems at first sight to be almostcontradictory to its later connotation. Our presentinquiry is intended to bring out the connectinglinks between its various meanings as they gradu-ally passed through stages of transition. To avoidall subsequent error and confusion in understand-ing the conception of Maya, it seems necessary tomake clear the ground by first coming to termswith the word itself. The misconception and mis-use of words is at the root of a host of fallacies ;hence, we believe that no mean part of our task isfinished if we are able, by means of a careful philo-logical research, to define the concept of M5y4 in


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4 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYArelation to its historical development. This willfurnish an insight into the tfoctrine of Maya itself,which has always been a crux to the student ophilosophy. In treating of the word we shallproceed chronologically, and trace the developmentof its meaning down to the times of Sankara, whett,it acquired a rigid and technical sense, which sufvvives even to-dayBothhngk and Roth (in St. Petersburgtry) give the following different meanings of iftfeword : Kunst, ausserordentliches Vermogenderkraft, Kunstgnff, List, Anschlag, Trug,ein kunsthches Gebilde, Trugbild, Blendwerk,Tauschung. Now these do not help us much bytheir mere juxtaposition. In order to be free fromthe fault of false analogy and hasty etymolojgizingwe shall proceed inductively; and we now oeginto view the meanings m connexion with the contextin which the word occurs.

Geldner l assigns the following meanings to theword as it occurs in the Rgveda and the A.V. (i)Verwandlung, angenommene Gestalt ; die Kunst,sich und andere zu verwandeln, Verzauberung,Zauberkraft, Zauberkunst, die Macht Wunder zutun, Allwissenheit ; Betrug, List, Schlauheit ; (2)Illusion, Tauschung, Schem, Erdichtung; (3) derin das Verborgene eindnngende Geist, Phantasie.

1 Karl F. Geldner, Der Rtgveda in Auswahl, Stuttgart,1907.


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HISTORY OF THE WORD MAYA 5Uhlenbeck 1 also takes it to mean Wunderkraft,Trug, Trugbild. Gra&mann* (after referring it tothe root ma =man, vgl. matt, Grk. /IWTTI?) givesthe equivalents : ubermenschhche Weisheit oderList, gottliche Kunst oder Zauber-Kunst, Zauber-bild, Trugbild.

1 Following Bohtlingk and Roth, Monier Williams *ajso says that the meanings of art, wisdom,Extraordinary or supernatural power are only

found in the earlier language but when he addsthat in R.V. the word also means illusion, un-reality, deception, fraud,*' trick, sor-cery, witchcraft, magic, he is not accurate,and is using these words loosely. Some shade ofthese is of course in R V., and their further develop-ment ^is noticed in A.V., but to say that all theseare found in R.V. is not correct, but a hasty anderroneous generalization.The Nighantu, which is one of the earliest collec-tions of Vedic homonyms, mentions m&ya asone of the eleven names of prajfia (intelligence).4The great commentator on the Nighantu, Yaska,*

1 Uhlenbeck, Etymologisches Worterbuch der AltindisckenSprache, Amsterdam, 1898-99

Grassmann, Worterbuch zum Rig-Veda.Momer Williams, Sansknt-Enghsh Dictionary, newedition, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1899, p. 811.

Nighantv, vol i of Btbl. Ind. ed Calcutta, 1882 ,-see p 324, ch 111. sec 9. Cf. Roth's ed Gottingen, 1852 ;

See'rAs WuAfo, Bibl. Ind. ed., vol. u., published 1885,


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6 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAbrings out the same sense of

prajfia

while ex-

plaining adhenva carati mayiyaisah (Nir. i. 6, 4),' imam u nu kavitamasya mayam (Nir. vi. 3,4),'

mayam u tu yajniyanam (Nir vii 7, 5),*and visva hi maya avasi svadhavah (Nir. xii.2, 6).* We shall have occasion to see presentlyhow far Slyana sticks to this meaning in his montv *mental commentary on R.V. Without citing an^rmore lists of meanings, let us approaclj directiythe Sanskrit literature and the Vedas first inorder to judge the meaning correctly from the usagein the context. '

After a careful examination of all the passageswhere the word occurs in any of its forms in thehuge bulk of R.V., we arrive at the following con-clusions .

I. As regards frequency of occurrence the* formmost commonly met with is mayah* (nom andace. pi.). It occurs no less than twenty-four times.Next in order comes mayaya * (mstr. sing ), whichp 134, 1 8 ; vol in , published 1886, p 190, 1 2 ; p. 427,1. 10 ; vol. iv., p. 278, 1 10

1 Cf. Roth's ed of YAska's Niruhta, Gottmgen, 1852 ;i 20 (p. 39) R V x 71 5.Cf Ibid, vi 13 (p 95-96) R V v. 85 6.

- Cf Ibid vu 27 (p 124) R V x ^8 6Cf Ibid xii 17 (p 174) RV. vi 58 iCf. R.V i 32 4, 117. 35 u ii 10,27 I6J1U.20.

3. 53 8 v 2 9, 31 7, 40 6, 40 8 , vi 18 9, 20 4,2Z. 9, 44. 22, 45 9, 58 I , vu i 10, 98 5, 99 4 ; viu 41. 8 ;* 53- 9. 73- 5. 99- 2. i. 6

Cf. R.V. i. 80. 7, 144. i, 160. 3 ; ii. 17. 5 j ii. 27. 7 ;


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HISTORY OF THE WORD MAYA 7occurs nineteen times ; mayinah * (ace. pi. and gen.sing, of mayin} occurs fifteen times ; tnayabhih *(instr. pi.), thirteen times ; mayinam * (ace. smgbf mdytn), ten times , the word maya * itself threetimes, and each of the forms ma.ya.rn * (ace.sing.), mayl (nom. sing, of maytn), andfQdyindm 7 also occurs three times. Mdyinl isfound twice (RV. v 48 i , x. 5. 3), and maytna(iistr. sing, of mayin) only once (R V vi 63. 5).Other forms, including compounds, which occuronce are mdytm (R.V. v. 48. 3), mdydvind (R.V.x. 24. 4), mdydvdn (R.V iv. 16 9)* mdydvtnam (R.V.ii. ii. 9), and mdydvmah (RV x. 83. 3).

2. There are altogether seventy-five hymns inR.V. in which the word appears in its simple orcompound forms. Out of these thirty-five are ad-dresse'd to Indra ; 8 eight to Agm (R.V. i. 144 ;iv. 30 12, 30 21 , v. 63 3, 63 7 ,24 , viu 23 15, 41 3 ; ix 73 5, 73 9, 83 385 18, 177. i

i Cf R V. i. 39. 2, 51 5, 54 4, 64 7,II. 10 ; m. 38 7, 38 9, 56 I , v 44 ii , vi 61 3 ; vn82 3 ; viii. 3. 19, 23 14 , x 138 3

Cf. R.V. i. ii. 7, 33 10, 51 5, 151 9 ; ui 34 6,60. i ; v 30 6, 44. 2, 78 6 ; vi 47 18, 63 5 ; vm 14. 14 jx 147 2.Cf R V i ii 7, 53 7, 56 3, 80 7 ; u. ii. 5 ; v 30.

'

Cf. R V 111 61 ' 7 , v. 63. 4 ; x. 54. 2.Cf R V v 85 5, 85 6 ; x 88. 6Cf R V vii 28. 4 ; x 99- 10, 147. 5' Cf. R.V i. 32 4 ; m. 20. 3, 34 3.

Vtde R.V. i. n, 32, 33, 51, 53, 54, 56. 80, 144, 160;


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8 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAiii. 20, 27 ; v. 2 ; vii. i ; vui. 23 ; x. 5, 53) ; fourto the AsVins (R.V. i. 117 ; v. 78 ; vi. 63 ; x. 24)as well as to the Maruts (R.V. i 39, 64 ; v. 58 ;vi. 48) ; three to Visve-devah (R.V. in. 56 ; v. 44^48) ; two each to Varuna (R.V. v. 85 ; viii. 41),Soma (R.V. ix. 73, 83), Mitravarunau (R.V. i. 151 ;v. 63), and Dyava-prthivyau (R.V. 1. 100, 159) ; an/ione each to U3as (RV m 61), Sarasvati (RV. vi.61), the Adityas (R V. n. 27), Pusan (R.V. vi 5$),Atn \R V. v 40), Jfianam (RV. x 71), the RbhusXBf.V in. 60), Indravarunau (R V. vu. 82), Somarkau(R.V. x. 85), Mayfibheda (R V. x 177), Indravisnu(R.V. vii 99) , Prajapati-Vaisvamitra (R.V. 111.38), and Surya-vaiSvanarau (R V. x. 88).

3. The word Maya is not employed in one andthe same sense throughout R.V The Indian tra-dition itself bears ample testimony to this fact.As a rule, following Yaska, Sayana in most casesgives the meaning pra^nd i.e , energy, mentalpower as distinguished from physical but he isnot always definite , in fact, he could not be so.It would be a gratuitous assumption on our partto expect the same word to be used m one and thesame rigid sense by so many different Rsis, whowere by no means all contemporary. Tradition

> as preserved in Sayana's commentary tells us

u 11,17 , 34. 53 : iv. 16, 30 ; v 30, 31 ; vi 18, 20, 22,44. 45- 47 vii. 28, 98, 104 ; viu 3, 14, 76 ; x. 73, 99. ill,138. I47.


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HISTORY OF THE WORD MAYA 9that the two meanings prajnd and kapata l are themost common, and Sometimes run parallel. Forinstance, even in the very first hymn (R V. i. n. 7).*m which the word appears as mdydbhth (and mdyi-nam), Sayana seems to waver between these twomeanings, and leaves the reader to make his own(Choice He explains mdydbhih by kapatavisesaih(lit

by special stratagems, artifices ) but addsa* the same time that it may also mean praj-nabhih ( by wondrous powers, ' ' Griffith) Wilsonadopts the first meaning, by stratagems, Lud-wig* translates it as durch ubefnaturliche Kraft.Rosen* also renders it as praestigus But theseare not the only meanings accepted by tradition.In R.V. 111 27 7 Sayana explains mdyayd by karmavtsaydbhijMnena, * i e , by knowledgeof sacred rites. This meaning appears to us tobe rather far-fetched. In R.V. in. 60. i he rendersthe same word as karmabhih 6 In m 61. 7, tttdyais translated as power, glory prabha-rapa, ht. in the form of effulgence or light. In R.V.

1 Which mean artifice, deception, cunning Germ List,Betrug, Kunst, Kraft, etc.

' Ludwig, Der Rigveda Prag, 1878Fndericus Rosen, Rigveda-Samhita, Liber Primus,Sanskrit^ et Latinfi, London, 1838

Sayana denves this meaning thus minute janltekarma miyate anayeti va maya karmavmyajftanam (rootma, to know), 3rd conj mimile, or ma, to measure, miyate.*Sayana adds . miyante jfiayanta' iti mayah karmaiii.Cf. also R.V x. 53. 9, where Sayana says . Karmana-maitat.


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io THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAiv. 30. 21, and v. 30 6, Sayana emphatically givesthe meaning sakti (power).

Again, keeping aside for a moment Mandalas i. andx. of R.V. which are now supposed on good evidence*to have been subsequently added to the originalcollection we find the same want of fixity of themeaning conveyed by the term in the other books ofR.V. For instance, according to Sayana's traditionthe word is used in the sense of deception in R.^.ii. II. io, 111. 34. 6, iv 16. 9, vi. 20 4, viS 104. 24,and so forth, while both the meanings powerand deception are taken in v 30. 6 simultaneously.In v. 31. 7 the word is taken to mean a youngwoman. This meaning too has its own justifica-tion and is not unconnected with the other twomeanings. In what sense a woman can be calledmayd is not to be discussed here, but will find itsappropriate place in the sequel.The two chief meanings, therefore, which theword is assigned in R.V. are power (Prajna, lit. knowledge ) and deception ( Kapata,' Van-cana). The above examination of the various pas-sages in which the word occurs has shown us thatwherever it means power the idea of mystery necessarily goes with it , i.e., it does not mean any physical power, but a mysterious power of thewill, which we would translate into such Sanskritexpressions as saiikalpa-sakh or tcchd-iakti. InR.V. iii. 53. 8, for instance, Indra is spoken of asassuming many different forms, and it is not


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HISTORY OF THE WORD MAYA itdone by his

physical

power but simply by hiswonderful and extraordinary will-power (aneka-

rupagrahanasamarthya). He wills that he mayassume such and such forms and it is realized ;hence Indra is very frequently termed mayin inthe Vedic hymns Certain mysterious things orresults are produced by this mysterious will-power,and these results being extra-ord.ma.ry by their verynature ma^y be said to set at naught the ordinaryhuman understanding, which because of its inherentlimitations is apt to be deceived by such pheno-mena. Hence, the idea of mystery being com-mon to both these meanings, it is quite easy tounderstand the transition from the idea of mys-terious will-power to that of deception Infact the two ideas interpenetrate each other, somuch*so that it seems to us rather a forced distinc-tion to make when we speak of the transition. Still,distinctions are to be made, especially when theyhelp us to a clearer understanding of that which isreally beyond them.We may, however, note here in passing thatwhere Indra is spoken of as assuming various forms

(cf. especially m. 53. 8 and vi. 47 18) it appearsthat the singers of the hymns and Indians of theVedic age in general were not unaware of a dis-tinction between the one and the many, of thepossibility of the one becoming the many and ofthe latter being a deceptive creation of a mysteriouspower.


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12 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAThis inference seems to us to be reasonable and

valid. The fact is very important, as we shall havethe opportunity to speak more of it later. Herewe cannot do anything more than simply mentionit, since we are now concerned only with the mean-ings of the word so far as it can be determined bya collocation of ancient texts in a more or leas'chronological order. tNow, the word does not so often ocgir in CheYajurveda and the Samaveda This cannot sur-prise us m any way. These two Vedas containmostly the mantfas of the Rgveda which areadapted and arranged to suit their particular func-tions as well as some new mantras In the Y.V.all ideas are subservient to sacrifice (yajna) and itsvarious elaborate ceremonies ; while in the S.V.chanting or singing the mantras is the chief function.The R.V. is the chief source of these two Vedas,which along with it form what is known as trayividya, i e., triple knowledge. The comparativeabsence of the word Maya from the Y.V and theS.V. does not affect our examination, as the R.V.can be safely taken to be an index to the ideas andviews of the ancient Indians of that age. It wasnot very long before these two Vedas sprang intoexistence, to be ranked with the R.V. as to theirimportance and authority in the tradition of theAryans. In fact these three Vedas seem to havebeen brought into existence almost simultaneously,though it must be admitted that it took a consider-


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HISTORY OF THE WORD MAYA 13ably long interval of time to give them the shapein which they are found at present, i e., as a completeset of booksThe Atharva-Veda was added to the trayl-vidyamuch later. The fact has been amply proved by

a critical examination of both external and internalesadence. It is not for us to enter into the questionhere The A.V. represents a different state ofcivilization, of society from that described in theR.V. And we are satisfied to note that the wordMay5 is not missing in it Altogether the wordoccurs in ten books only, in sixteen hymns * andtwenty times in all (in A.V. vm. 9. 5 and vm. 10. 22the word occurring twice in each of the hymns andtwice also in xiu. 2 and xix 27).Tire form maya occurs only once (A.V. vni. 9. 5).The * instrumental singular, mayaya, occurs mostfrequently, viz., eight times. s Maymah 8 occursthree times and mayam* and mayah* twice each.Other forms which occur only once are maye (viii.10. 22), mdyaydl} (vm. 9. 5), mayabhih (xii. i. 8)and mayl (v n. 4).

1 A V u 29 6 j iv 23 5, 38 3 ; v II 4 , vi 72 I ;vu 81. 1 ; vm. 3 24, 4. 24, 9 5, 10. 22 ; x 8 34 , xn i. 8.xui. 2. 3, 2. II ; xix. 27. 5, 27 6, 66 I, 68 I.Cf. Whitney's Index Verborum to the Published Text ofthe Athana-Veda, New-Haven, JAOS. vol xu p 225.A V iv. 38. 3 ; vi 72 I ; vu. 81 I ; vill 4 24 ; X.8. 34 ; xui. 2 3, 2 II ; xix 68. I.

* A.V. xix. 27 5, 27 6, 66 i.A.V. iv. 23. 5 ; vm. 3 24.


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14 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAFrom the very nature of the contents of theAtharva-Veda it is easy to ju*dge the meaning of theword mdyd as used in it. Here the mysterious o{

magical element of the power spoken of in theRgveda is more emphasized, and there hardly seemsany scope for doubting the meaning. It means magic throughout, and is even translated 'illusion (the great controversial word in ojirsubject) by Whitney.1 The two passage* in whfchit is rendered so are found in the well-known Mys-tic hymn, extolling the Viraj, e.g., in A.V., 10. 22,The Asuras caOed to her, Illusion* (maya),come It may also be stated, by the way, thatA.V. vii. 81. i, viii. 3. 24, vm. 4 24 are taken fromR.V. x. 85 18, v. 2. 9, vn. 10. 4 respectively.Now we have seen so far that maya in R.V. means a wondrous or supernatural power, an extra-ordinary skill, and that the supernatural ele-ment is more strongly emphasized in A V., whereit means magic and hence illusion.With regard to the word occurring in the Brah-manas it would be useless for us to enter into any

1 Cf Atharva-Veda Samhita. trans by W D Whitney(Harvard Oriental Series), 1905, vol 11 p 507, 514. Fortranslation see also Les Lwres vw, et is de L'At-harva Veda Tradwts et Comments, par Victor Henry, Pans,1894 , and Griffith's The Hymns of the Atharva-Veda. andLudwig's Der Rtgveda, Band ui , Einleitung, Frag,1878, p. 493-We would rather say mystery instead of Whitney'suse of the word illusion here.


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HISTORY OF THE WORD MAYA 15details here. The really philosophical treatises,which are of fundamental importance for our pur-pose, are the final portions of the Brahmanas, calledthe Upamsads But before we take up the Upani-sads proper, we may quote a few references fromthe Brahmanas too in the way of Sthdli-puldka-fiyaya.The Vajasaneyi-Samhita contains the formsmaya (xi. 69), mayam, mayaya* and mayayam,8

and Mahidhara in his commentary gives the words prajfia and buddhi as synonyms of maya.The Aitareya Brahmana' has faayaya (vi. 36),mayam, mayavant, and mayavattarah (viii. 23),where the word clearly means supernatural ormagical skill. The form mayayS also occursin the, Taittiriya Brahmana 7 (m. 10. 8. 2) where,

1 i e , the maxim of the cooking-pot and the boilingnee By finding one grain well-cooked we infer the samewith regard to all the others So the conditions of the classmay be inferred from that of a part, if the whole is made upof homogeneous and similar parts Cf Patafijah's Maha-bhisya, i 4 23 (Vart 15) Paryapto hi ekah pulakahsthalyS mdarsanaya

Weber, The White Yajuneda, part I, The Vajasanejrl-Samhita, in the Madhyandrna and the Kanva-Sakha, withthe commentary of Mahidhara Berlin and London, 1852.

Ibid . p 420 V S xui. 44. Mahidhara adds, miyat*ji&yate anaya iti maya

* Ibid , p 728, V S xxw. 52.Ibid.,p 841, VS xxx 7.* Das Aitareya Brahmana, heransgegeben von Theodor

Aufrecht, Bonn, 1879. See p. 184 and 230* The Tatttiriya Brahmana of the Black Yajvrveda,


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16 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAas Sayana also adds, it means by divine power Further the Satapatha-Brafimana * too containsthe forms mayam (n 4 25) and maye (m241), mayavant (xm 5 4 12) where the wordmeans supernatural power ' a The Paficavims'ati Brahmana also has the word mayaya (xm6


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HISTORY OF THE WORD MAYA 17mSyS. (i. i6),

1 the Svetaivatara Up maya (i. io),mayam, mayinam (iv, 10), 3 mayl,* and mayayS(iv. 9).Among the later Upamsads too the word occurs ;

the forms maya, mayam, mayaya m Nrp. Up. (ni.I ; v. i) 5 and in Nrut. Up. (Khanda 9), 5 mayama-.tram m Nrut. Up. (i and 5). 5 In Cul. Up. (3)we read

i Bibl Iri&ic vol vm No 29 Here Maya is spoken ofas a defect along with jihmam (moral crookedness) andanrtam (telling a he) It is itself mithyacararupadosa(the defect of hypocrisy)

1 Here maya means the great cosmic illusion In hiscom on the passage Sankara adds, sukhaduhkha-mohatmakaSesaprapaficarupamaya, i e , the whole worldas a sum-total of pleasure, pain, delusion, etc' Here the Prakrti of the Sankhya is spoken of as mdyA.Cf jnayam tu prakftim viddhi mayinam tu mahe^varam * The Great Lord is called mayl here and in the follow-ing stanza He is said to create the universe only by hismaya-Sakti The Nrsimha-Tapani Upamsad, Bibl InSica, Cal ,1871. As these and other minor Upamsads are not easilyavailable we give the following quotations in full MaySva esa narasimhl, natmanam maya sprgati, Kse-rfipanubhuteh, evam evaisa mSya, may5 cSvidyaca svayam eva bhavati, mayam etam Saktim vidyat,ya etam mayam Saktim veda, mayaya va etat sarvamvestitam, mayaya vahirvestitam, mayaya hy an-yad iva, mudha iva vyavaharann aste mayayaiva, ' 'may-aya nasamvittihsvaprakage, trayam apy etat (and tray-am atrSpi) susuptam svapnam m&y3un,tra,m, (Nrut i),* idam sarvam yad ayam atma mayamatram (Nrut. 5).For Culika and other Upamsads see the Collection of


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i8 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYA VikSrajananim mayam astarupam ajam dhruvam,where Maya is spoken of as bringing about the exist-

ence of the phenomenal world.The Sarv, Up 1 reads Katham pratyagatma paramatma atma maya ceti,

where an inquiry is made into the meanings of thesefour terms including maya, and the answer is give/iin section 4 . . *

Anadir antarvatni pramanapramanasadharana na satinasatl na sadasati svayam avikarad vikarahetau mru-pyamane asati,* amrupyamane sati laksanasunya s3mayety ucyate,

where the mysterious nature of maya is described.The Ramap Up.,8 which is one of the sectarianUpanisads, speaking of Rama and Sita as Rrakrtiand Purusa, reads thus

tato RSmo manavo mayayadhyat (17). kbnaparsve ramamaye (61)thirty-two Upanisads, published -by the AnandasramaSansknt Series, No 29, Poona, 1895 The Cul Up con-tains only twenty-one slokas, divided into two khandas,and belongs to A V , p 230

1 The Sarvopamsatsara is a small prose-treatise contain-ing only five sections, in the last of which it gives a gooddescription of maya See Ibid , p 587-92* The Great Lord is called may here and in the follow-ing stanza. He is Said to create the universe only by hismaya-saktiThe RamapQrvatSpaniya Up contains ninety-fourSlokas divided into ten khandas. See ibid., pp. 487-529,


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HISTORY OF THE WORD MAYA 19 mayavidye ye kaiapSratattve (89). namo mSySxaaySya. ca (30).

The Gopicandana Up. readsI m&yasahitabrahmasambhogavasat (4)I mayasabahtam Brahmasit (Ibid )fhe Krsna Up. also reads

m5ya s5 tnvidha prokta (5) maya tredha hy udahfta (6) ajayya Vaisnavl maya (7)Hanh saksan mayavigrahadharanah (11) Mayaya mohitam jagat (12) tasya m3y3 jagat katham (13)In all these passages maya means appearance,illusion, 1 etc. The same sense is further found

in sa evam mayapanmohitatma (KaivalyaUp. 12), and indrajalam iva m5y5mayam (MaitriUf.* iv. 2).One of the most brilliant and important works onAdvaitism is Gaudapada's Kankas on the,MandukyaUpamsad. 8 These are divided into four parts(prakaranas) (i) Agama ; (2) Vaitathya ; (3)Advaita ; (4) Alata-santi, each of which is regardedas a separate Upamsad. Of the subject-matterof this important work we shall have occasion tospeak in Chapter II. But here we may only point

1 We are consciously using these two words as synonymsThe Mandfikya-Upamsad (of A.V),with Gaudapada'sKankis, together with Sankara's Comm., Anandairaina

Series, No. 10, 1890, Poona.


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20 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAout that the word maya is here also used in thesame sense of appearance, * illusion (In onepassage, however, it means supernatural power,ii. 12)The Karika contains sixteen passages altogetherin which the word maya occurs. Out of these, PartIII contributes no less than six passages, Part IVcontnbutmg four, and each of the other two partscontributing three, ^

svapnamaySsarupeti sfstir anyair vikalpita,where the world is likened to a world of dreams andto illusion, both of which are false.anadimayaya supto yada jlvah prabudhyate

(i. 16),

where the cosmic illusion under the influence ofwhich the individual feels as if asleep is spo'kenof as begmningless. Mayamatram idam dvaitam advaitam paramarthatah

where the duality, i e , the multiplicity of which theword is composed, is declared mere illusion. Kalpayaty Stmanatmanam atma devah svamayaya

( ),

where maya is said to be the Lord's own wondrouspower. Here the sense of such a supernaturalpower is maintained. But, as will be shown pre-sently, the two ideas are closely allied to each


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HISTORY OF THE WORD MAYA 21other. The sense of

illusion

is a naturaldevelopment of the idea of such a power.

mayaisa tasya devasya yaya sammohitah svayam ( i9).

where maya is spoken of as the Lord's great illusion. svapnamSye yatha dfste gandharvanagaram yathH

( 3i),where again maya is collated with svapna, and itis said that the waking world has no substantiality,like a dreaming world or like a fata morgana.samghatah svapnavat sarve atmamayavisarjitah (m. 10),

where the so-called objective existences in this worldare declared false and mere creations of the At-man's maya (amdyd). mayaya bhidyate by etan nanyathajam kathamcana

(111 19).where the differences or the plurality are said tobe due to mere illusion. The same thought isrepeated in

neha naneti camnayad mdro mayabhir ity apiajayamano bahudha mayaya jayate tu sah (ui 24).Further, in the following two passages it is dis-

cussed how the world is created not from not-beingbut from being not in reality but as it were : sato hi mayaya janma yujyate na tu tattvatah (ut. 27)asato mayaya janma tattvato naiva yujyate

(iu. a&).

ID Part IV we find


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22 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYA Upalambhat samacaran mayahasti yathocyate (iv. 44),

where the empirical existence of the world is grantedlike the one granted to an illusive elephant.janma mayopamam tesSm sa ca maya na vidyate

(iii. 58),

where maya is said to have no real existence atall. yathamayamayad vijaj jayatetanmayo 'nkurah (iv 59),where the creation? destruction, etc., of the worldlyobjects is described as maya, an appearance, seemingtrue only in the realm of appearance. yatha svapne dvayabhasam cittam calati mayaya,tatha jagrad dvayabhasam cittam calati mayaya (iy 61),where the seeming duality is spoken of as merevijUdnamaya, and the waking and the dreamingstates are compared in this regard.The same sense is observed in the great epic, theMah&bharata. For instance

purS vikurute mayam (i 6,029)Cf also i 7,631,111 2,557. xiii 7.595. mayam mohinim samupasntah (i 1,156), apsara devakanya va maya (111 15,580)Now we come to the BhagavadgitS, which is the

finest gem in our New Testament of the Upanisads,and which contains the essentials of all our philo-sophy.


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HISTORY OF THE WORD MAYA 23prakrtim svam adhisthayasambhavSmy atmamayaya (iv. 6).

Here it means will-power Daivi hy esS gunamayimama tnaya duratyaya,mam eva ye prapadyantemayam etam taranti te (vii. 14)

Here it means illusion, which being dependenton God is spoken of as divine.mayayapahj-tajaanaasuram bhavam asntah (vii. 15).

Here, too, the same sense of ** illusion.bhramayan sarvabhutaniyantrarudham mayaya (xvm 61).

Here, too, it means the great illusive Power.Now let us turn to the System of the Vedanta,properly so called as one of the six systems or schoolsof Indian philosophy. The Sutras (aphorisms,condensed formulas) which constitute tliis systemare called the Brahma-Sutras or the Vedanta-Sutras,and are 555 in number The word maya, however,occurs only in one of these (ui. 2. 3), which runsthus Mayamatram tu kartsnyena anabhivyaktasvarupatvat M1where, speaking of the nature of a dream, the dream-world is pronounced to be mere illusion. Max

i Cf. Deussen, Die Sutras des Vedanta, Leipzig, 1887,p. 504 ; Thibaut, Ved&nta-Suiras, Part II (vol. JDCCWH. ofS.B.E ), Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1896, p. 134.


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24 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAMidler 1 seems to be incorrect when he says thatthe word need not mean more than a dream. Inthat case the sutra would mean that the dream:world is a dream, which hardly has any sense.Doubtless the word means illusion here, as itis quite in keeping with the spirit of the precedingtwo sutras, which also bear on the same subject dfthe unreality of the dream-world.The most important, authoritative and popular,as well as the oldest, commentary on the Vedanta-Sutras is the one by Sankara (otherwise calledSankaracarya) called the Sariraka-Bhasya ThisBhasya has so much been respected that it forms apart and parcel of the technical system of theVedanta together with the Sutras Of the intrinsicmerit of Sankara's commentary or of its relajion tothe Brahma-Sutras we shall have occasion to s'peaklater on. Suffice it to say here that the term maya is found, in the commentary fifteen times in thefollowing passages,2 and it invariably has the senseof illusion.

i yatha mayamna's carma-khadgadharat sutrenaSkasam adhirohatah sa eva maydvi paramartharupobhumistho 'nyah 8 (On i i. 17)i Max Muller, The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy,

Longmans, 1899, p 243.* We have selected here the more typical and importantpassages No doubt there are some others too, some ofthese having been quoted in ch 11Sankara's Comm on 1 i 17 p. 120, 1. 16 of theVed&nta-Sutras, Bibl. lad., Cal , 1863.


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HISTORY OF THE WORD MAYA 25Here the word mayavin occurs and means aiuggler s too it means in the following

2. eka eva paramesvarah kutastha-mtyo vijfianadhaturavidyaya mayaya mayavivad anekadha vibhavyate. 1

(On i 3 19)g. mayamayi maha-susuptih (On i 4. 3 )>4. Kvacm maya ita sucitam (Ibid ) 35 . Avyakta hi sa maya (Ibid )*6 MSyavI iva mayayah prasaritasya jagatah (Onu i i)7. yatha svayam prasantaya mayaya mayavi tnsv api

kalesu na samspjsyate avastutvat.^vam paramatmapisamsara-mayaya na samsp^syate iti, etc (On u.i 9)*

8 mayamatram hi etat (Ibid ) 79. yatha ca mayavi svayam-prasaritam mayam icchaya

apayasena eva upasamharati (On 11 i 21 ) 810 loke 'pi devadisu mayavi-adisu ca svarupa-anumar-dena eva vicitra hasta-asva-adi sfstayo djsyante

(On u i 28)These are the ten passages in Sankara's Bhsya

in which the word occurs. It is possible to discovermore passages in the same on a minuter analysis ofthe vast and voluminous commentary, but thatwould not affect our problem in any way. It is

Sankara on 1 3 19 Ibid , p 269, II 1-3Ibid , p. 342, I. 9. * Ibid , p 342, I. 12.~- J - 343. I- I-on i 3 19, Ibid., p. 406, I. 6.

432, U. 8-10. 7 Ibid , p 432, 1. 13.472, 1. g. Ibid., p. 484, I. u.

Ibid, p. 343, 1.

Ibid.,Ibid.,


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26 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAtrue beyond doubt that Sankara means by maynothing but illusion.From Sankara's time downward the phraseologyof the Vedanta was more and more settled technic-ally, and even modern writers on the Vedanta usethe word maya in the same sense of illusion iwhich was so clearly brought out by Sankar*.After his time there has not been any desire tochange the meaning of the term by a different usSge.Hence it will hardly be of much use to examine thelater Sanskrit texts on the Vedanta hi order to findout the word * maya. In the first place, it is'exceedingly difficult to do so, since the later litera-ture is so varied, vast and undefined in extent ,secondly, the later Vedanta is in many cases mixedwith the ideas of the Sankhya, Buddhism, etc , andthirdly, even if we were to succeed in collecting allthe more important modern works on pure Vedantaand wei to collate the passages containing maya in a similar way, it would scarcely be of any profit,since, as we have already said, the modern usage ofthe term is in no way different from that of Sankara.A glance through such works as the PancadaSi,the Vedantasdra, the Vedantapanbhdsa, the Atma-bodha, the Vwekacuddmani, etc., will amply endorsethis fact. We may, therefore, safely close our sur-vey of the meanings of the term when we have comedown to Sankara's time.Apart from its philosophic use, the word maya

is used in modern classical Sanskrit to convey some


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HISTORY OF THE WORD MAYA 27other ideas also. Sometimes it means a femalejuggler. x Again it means deception or fraud(kapata) or hypocrisy (chadma), e.g., in the MahS-bhSrata.

sevetSm amayaya gurum (xui 7,595).i*., let both of them serve the teacher withoutany deception.If also means illusion in an unphilosophi-cal sense, i e., in an ordinary way free from thetechnical shade of the philosophical idea. Forexample, in the Raghuvamsa we reSd

mayam mayodbhavya pariksito 'si (11. 62),i.e., you have been tested by me creating illusion.The word is also used sometimes as a proper name.Buddna's mother was called maya (full name :maya Devi ), as mayadevlsuta is one ofBuddha's names mentioned in the Amarafcoia. *

1 Cf. Amarakosa (Dictionary of the Sansknt Language, byAmara Simha), edited with an English interpretation andannotations by H T Colebrooke, Serampur, 1808, p. 241,Sloka ii syi> maya sambari mayakaras tu pratiha-nkah

* Amarakosa, ed Colebrooke, Ibid p 3, Sloka 10 . Gautamas ca-arkabandhus ca mayadevisutas ca sah Cf.alsoMax Muller's Six Systems of Indian Philosophy, Long-mans, Green & Co, 1899, p 122 See also maya inWilson's Dictionary in Sansknt and English, second enlargededition, Calcutta, 1832, p 657 ; also Sansknt Dictionary,by Taranatha Tarkavacaspata, Calcutta, 1882 ; Padmacan-drakosa, by Prof. Ganesh Datta Shasta, Nirnaya-sagara


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28 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAEven at the present dayt m India some girls areactually named Maya-Dew or Maya-vati or Maya-Kaur. The chief reason why they areso named is that they are looked upon as auspiciousif their name means wealth or a bnnger ofwealth, etc , everything bearing on wealth beingsupposed to be auspicious In India almost allnames mean something definite most of them areafter the designations of some gods or goddesses.It is supposed that if a girl is named maya shewill ever be ^ abounding in riches. This idea pf riches 'leads us to the next meaning of the word,which is the goddess of wealth, called Laksmi.LaksmI is the presiding deity of wealth, and herpresence is always desired by the Hindus. 1 Italso means sometimes mere wealth. , J'his isespecially noticed in modern works in Hindi andPunjabi.

In the Sankhya system Maya is identified with

Press, Bombay , further see F Bopp, Glossanum Sanscri-tum, Berohm, 1847, p 263 , Macdonell, Sanskrit EnglishDictionary, Lond , 1893, p 226 , Theodore Benfrey, ASanskrit English Dictionary, Lond , 1866, p 701, etc , etc.

1 Every year in the month of Asvina there is a specialfestival observed called the Dipamaia. (lit a row of lamps),as on that day every Hindu burns a number of lamps (gener-ally of clay) arranged m long rows in all parts of his house,especially on the outside A special traditional story ofLaksmI is recited, and it is hoped that the goddess ofwealth will come to all those who love light (prakasa) and


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HISTORY OF THE WORD MAYA 29Prakrti (the primordial

matter ) as the source ofthe universe, with the distinct difference that the

latter is real. It is the equilibrium of the threequalities of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. 1 It is alsocalled Pradhana It has a real and independentexistence and brings about the evolution of thewhple world m company with the Purusa In otherwords, the Sankhya system is based on an out-and-out dualism This dualism is questioned and finallysolved by the Vedanta in so far as the Prakrti istransformed into Maya, and the Purusa into Brah-raan, and so the mutual opposition dof the two isThe word Maya is derived from i/ma., to

measure miyate anaya iti, i e , by which ismeasured, meaning thereby, as tradition has it, thatillusive* projection of the world by which theimmeasurable Brahman appears as if measured.The same root gives further the sense of to build,leading to the idea of appearance or illusion.Sayana, 2 m his commentary on R V i. n 7, tooderives the word from mad mane (i.e., y'ma, tomeasure). Further on, while explaining the form mayaya in R V. in. 27 7 he derives it from


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30 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAetc., are known, (2) -v/Ma - to measure by which theritual, etc., are measured c (i.e , understood, or per-formed) , hence maya = the knowledge of the objectof the ritual, etc. Again m R V. m 60 i also, adds Sayana, miyante

jnayante iti mayah karmam, i e mayah (nom.pi.) means ritual practices because they are knows. (from ^/ma, to know) In R.V. x 53 9 too Sayanatakes the word to mean karma We are incimedto say that this derivation of Sayana is a littlefar-fetched. Another rather fanciful denvationgiving the meaning correctly none the less is maya = ma ya, i.e , that which is not thatwhich truly is not but still appears to be. This is,however, a merely interesting derivation withoutarty principles of etymology.Another way to derive it would be mate (svat-

manam) dars ayati iti maya, i e., that which showsitself that which appears to our view (withouthaving any real existence). This will be from^/ma, to show.

Hence, the conception of maya as the causal will-power (iccha-s akti or prajna) may be derived fromVma, to know ; and, as the effectual state of theworld as illusion, from


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HISTORY OF THE WORD MAYA 31underlying mystery being more emphasizedlater on, it came to mean in A V

(2) Magic, illusion And, further, we saw thatin the Brahmanas and the Upamsads also

. it meant(3) illusion, and that this meaning was moreand more fixed subsequently, till m the

time of Sankara it was established beyond.*- doubt The sense of illusion may easily

be found to exist in form even in the Vedicusage of the term, e g , where in the R Vit meant power or skill A always meant supernatural or wondrous power andnot the ordinary physical power

The idea of mystery or wonder always waspresent, and it is this very element that in its devel-oped form gives the sense of illusion or appear-ance The idea of magic ' in A V formed alink between the old meaning of supernaturalpower and the modern one of appearance or illusion As we have already pointed out, maya has been viewed principally from two

(1) As the principle of creation maya as acause corresponding to the sense of Sakti(wondrous power), or

(2) As the phenomenal creation itself mayaas an effect corresponding to the sense of illusion, appearance, etc

This short summary, we hope, will suffice as an


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32 THE DOQTRINE OF MAYAintroduction to the conception of maya in the follow-ing chapter. The meaning if the term having beendiscussed, we will now attempt to trace the develop-ment of the theory or the idea of Maya from theVedic times down to Sankara's, when its usage wasfinally settled, limiting ourselves to the system ofthe Vedanta proper.

If we were to attempt to trace the conception |Maya or its alternative conceptions in other s;it would lead us out of our present scope We hhowever, to be able sometime in the near future {write a separaterfreatise on this doctrine with specialreference to its place in modern Hindu philosophyand its analogies in other Eastern and Western Reli-gions and Philosophies. For the present we haveto confine ourselves mainly to the historical view ofthe conception of Maya within the system* tf theVedanta.


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IT OF THECONCEPTION OF MM


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CHAPTER IIDEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPTION OF MAYA.

AFTER a brief philological survey of the word mSyS,we now turn to the idea itself. Tke word and theidea are not to be confused , since such a confusionis productive of various false assumptions as to thedoctrine of mSyS in relation to its place in Indianthought. There are not a few who boldly allegethat*tlte doctrine is distinctively of a late origin andgrowth, an after-thought or a subsequent sugges-tion of some of the later VedSntms of thj purelyIdealistic temperament. The idea of M5yS, theypretend, is wholly wanting in the earlier philoso-phical treatises of the Hindus, viz , the Upamsads,etc. Without anticipating any discussion on thispoint, we may only state that such thinkers seem tous to be entirely mistaken. Hence our main thesisin this chapter will be to show, with the aid of suit-able authoritative quotations from our philosophicliterature, that the idea of MSyS is very old-certainly older than the word maya. The word inits usual sense, of course, occurs for the first time in


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36 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAthe Svetalvatara Upamsad (iv 10), but the tdeamay be traced to the later stige of the Vedic civiliza-tion We shall endeavour to show that the con-ception, though not in a systematic and organicform, is already found in the R V and the Upamsads

Philosophy, as reflective thought, or the thinkingconsideration of things, 1 did actually begin with>things , that is to say, the first germs of philosophybegan to appear with an attempt to explain fn|concrete realities in the environment, i e , the UxHverse A yearning was noticeable in the humaffbreast to comprehend the source of all existenceAnd as all higher development is from the concreteto the abstract, thought too followed the same course,and after passing through the stages in which thedifferent forces of nature, or various other elements,such as water, air, fire, etc , began to be imaginedas the chief source of all existences, the point wasreached*where the many was found to yield nosatisfactory explanation of its being, and a desire wasfelt to know the mystery, the underlying unityWith the advance in thought, the principle of unityattracted more and more attention, so much so thatas early as in R V i 164 ( ekarp sad vipra bahudhavadanti i e , the poets speak of the One Beingunder various names), the multiplicity was felt tobe due to a mode of speech only, not real in itself,

Cf Schwegler Geschtchte der Pktlosopfne Stuttgart Ein-lertnng ' Philosophieren ist Nacbdenken, (Jenkende Betra-


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DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 37only the One having real existence. The innumer-able Vedic gods began thus to be conceived as notat war with one another, but only manifestations ofOne God Monotheism conquered Polytheism inits exclusive sense The last book of the R V. isparticularly rich in philosophic hymns, many ofwhich strike a chord of the same sentiment of unity^nderlying diversity

The bold speculation ofBe ancient Vedic people is picturesquely portrayedm R V x 129 one of the earliest records knownof an attempt at explaining the cosmogonic mysteryby grasping the idea of unity It 1 one of the mostsublime and exalted hymns in the R.V., both fromthe philosophic and the literary standpoints, and isa true index to the early mystic thought of theHindus To a somewhat prejudiced mind it mayappear as a mere conglomeration of contradictionsand a piece of abstract sophistry But it is one ofthe finest songs that any literature maybe proudof. Deussen describes it as the most remarkablemonument of the oldest philosophy, 1 and hastranslated it into German 3 As the hymn is veryimportant for our purpose, we give our own trans-lation as follows

1 Deussen, Outlines of Indian Philosophy. Berlin, 1907,p. 13, I- 20* Deussen, Geschichte der Philosophic, vol. i , p. 126, andalso in his Geheitnlehre des Veda, zweite Auflage, Leipzig,1907. P- 3- The hymn has been translated by many, butmost of the translations seem to be incorrect in places.


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THE DOCTRINE OF MAYARV x itg

1 Then was neither Being nor Non BeingNo realm of air no sky beyondWhat enveloped all ? Where ? In whose care 'Were waters there the deep abyss '2 Twas neither death nor life immortal

No night was there no day s appearanceThe One in its spontaneity did airless breatheBeyond it naught was in existence

3 Darkness was there at first by darkness coveredThe world ^as ocean without distinctionBut a pregnant germ lay hidden in shellThe One engendered by force of heat

4 Within it at first arose DesireWhich was the primal seed of mindThe root of Being in Non Being Sages *Searching by wisdom in the heart discovered

5 When like a ray their being they spreadWhat was below ? what was above 'Seed bearers were there great powers too

Spontaneity beneath and effort above6 Who knows in sooth ? Who here can tell 'Whence it became ' Whence this creation ?The gods came later than its creationSo who can tell whence all this arose ?7 From whom arose this whole creationWhether he produced it or not heWho in highest heaven surveys it,He knows it well or even not he


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DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 39This marks the beginnings of philosophicalthought in India. The*same conception of the basal

unity of the world afterwards gave rise to Greekphilosophy in the Eleatic monism Xenophanesstarted his polemic against the anthropomorphismin popular Greek religion and was the first amongGreek thinkers to declare All is one A littlelater Parmemdes too developed, as his chief princi-ple, the same idea of the essential oneness of beingand thought We point out this fact simply to showthat it was quite natural and legitimate that the

' Vedic poets should begin their philosophical specu-lation with their yearning to comprehend the under-lying unity of the world That the yearning wasnatural is amply shown by almost exactly the sametendencies being found in other philosophies, especi-ally*m* that of Greece. As in Greece, so in India,philosophy was born as the child of wonder.

Garbe, who has done a good deal of useful wor^ *nthe Sankhya, has unfortunately failed to realizethe spmt in which the above hymn was composedby the Vedic Aryans, and finds in it as well as inother philosophical hymns in the R.V., unclearand self-contradictory trains of thought. J Wefail to perceive any such contradictions. The vari-ous explanations are in themselves demanded by thevery mysterious nature of the problem. It may beremarked in passing that the Being and Non-Being

* Richard Garbe, The Philosophy of Anctent India,Chicago, 1897, p. i.


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40 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAspoken of in the hymn do not stand in antithesis(as they do in early Greek* philosophy) , on thecontrary, they are one, though they are two fromour way of looking at them.1 The undevelopedstate, known as kdrandvasthd, is spoken of as Non-Being it does not mean the negation of Being;while the manifested state is called by the name,of Being.This also explains why Being is said to be born^fNon-Being in R.V. x. 72 2-3, and the root of theformer is discovered in the latter (R V x. 129. 4).There might appear many such contradictions im-plied in the use of terms, but they are only seemingcontradictions, and vanish as soon as the real recon-ciliation (vyavastha) is made out.Now, after attaining a consciousness of the one-ness of all things, the next step was naturally & questafter the nature of this unity An attempt is madeto determine it in R V x. 121, where, after describ-ing the majesty and wonder of the vast network ofcreation, the poet at last names Prajapati as theunknown god, the ultimate unity of all creation.

. Prajapati, than them there is no other.Who holds in his embrace the whole creation This idea of Prajapati is subsequently transformed

under the name of Brahman or Atman in the Upani-i On this idea see Sankara's commentary on Vedanta-

Sfltras, i 4. 15, p. 376, 11. 7-10 (Bibl. Ind. edn.).


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DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 41sads. However, in another Vedic hymn (R.V. x.90) we see the same p


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42 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAthe world, R.V. x. 190 We here insert the formerin our own translation, as if is one of the typicalhymns of the Rigvedic speculation and is importantfor our purpose

Vac1 I wander with the Rudras and the Vasus,With the Adityas and the Visve Devas , *

I support both, Mitra and Varuna,Indra and Agm, and the Asvins two2 I support Sbma, swelling with juice,

I support Tvastr, Pusan and Bhaga ,Tis I who give wealth to the zealous offerer,To the sacrincer who presses Soma3 I am the queen, the showerer of riches,The knowing, first of the worshipped ones , *Me have the gods in many forms displayed,

Me, living everywhere and entering all thingsever passes death There is no other road to go CfVS xxxii 2

Muir, p 374 All winkings of the eye have sprung fromPurusa, the resplendent No one has limited him eitherabove, or below, or in the middleThe first two verses of R V x 90 are given m the Svetai-vat Up 111 14, 15 Cf A V xix. 4, 5 6 7 Colebrooke'sMtsc Essays, i 167 and note in p 3091 For translations of the hymn, see Colebrooke, AsiaticResearches, vol vui , Calcutta, 1805, or MiscellaneousEssays, i,, p. 28 ; Weber's article on Vac and Logos,Id, Stud.'ix (1865), 473, Deussen, Gesckickte, vol. i. i.146 f. ; Griffith, i. 171 ; Weber, xvui 117. The wholehymn is found with slight variants in A.V iv. 30.


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DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 434. Through me he eats food, who sees,Who breathes, who hears what's spoken ;Not knowing me they stay by me,Hear thou of fame, I tell thee what's not easy to know,

worthy of belief.(Mw)to be credited.(Whitney )

. It is I myself who declare this truth,I Agreeable to gods and men alike ,I make him powerful, whom I love,|Him a Brahma (Brahmana), a Rsi, a sage

6 It's I who bend the bow for Rudra,That his arrow may strike the foe ot Brahmana,It's I who fight for my peoples' sake.It's I who have entered both heaven and earth.

7 I create Father (Dyaus), first on the world's summit, 1My birth-place is m the waters, in the ocean ,Tterf I into all things existing Center,And touch yonder heaven with my body

IIt's I who blow forth like the wind,Spreading into being all that exist ,Beyond the sky, beyond this earth,So great have I by my glory becomeThe unity of existence could not be more simplyand emphatically pronounced than in these hymns.When the goddess Vac says in stanza 3,1 This line is difficult to translate quite accurately.The extant translations do not throw any light on it Whit*

ney too leaves it open to doubt in his Atharva-veda, Trans,and Notes, vol. L, p. 201.


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44 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAMe have the gods m many forms displayed.Me, living everywhere and entering all things,

she repeats the same thought we have already referredto, which again is expressed by the Rsi Dirgha-tamas while praising Agm Of the one existence, the sages speak in dive

And the same thought was later on brought out byYaska (who lived about the fifth century, B c ) The One Atman is sung in many ways (Nirvn 5, Roth s ed , p n) Some of the other Vedichymns in which this conception of the underlyingunity of being is brought out are RV x 81, 82,90, 121, etc , which we can only refer to, instead oftranslating here All this clearly shows that thisidea of unity is as old as the Vedic civilization, thatthe ancient Indian Rsis were quite aware of the one-ness of being and gave a poetic expression to thesame thought in many beautiful strains

It is needless to multiply instances from the otherthree Vedas, since the R V is the chief source ofthese and is in itself the oldest and most importantone Most of the hymns of the other Vedas arebodily transferred from the R V and arranged indifferent ways to meet the spirit and requirementsof each We may, however, note in passing thatthe same idea of the unity of being is discovered inthe following stanzas from the A V.


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DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 45Aditi is heaven, Adrh atmosphere,Adifc mother, she father, she son ;All the gods are Aditi, the five races,Adita is what is born, Adit, what is to be born.A.V vii. 6. i i

Whoever know the Brahman in man, they know themost exalted one ; whoever know the most exalted one,and whoever know Prajapata, whoever know the chiefBrahmana, they know also accordingly the Skambha.* The great being (Yaksa) * is absorbed in austere fer-vour in the midst of the world, on the surface of the waters.In it are set whatever gods there are, as the branches of atree around the trunk A V xj7. 17, and 38.

What moves, flies and stands, breathing,not-breathing and winking , thatthat combined becomes One only AV x 8 II.

Prajapati goes about within the womb ;Unseen, yet is manifestly born 4A.V x, 8. ^3.

i Compare R V i 89. 10 ; V S xxv 23 , T.A i 13 2 ;and MS iv 14 4 For a similar sentiment in reference toViraj, see A V ix 10 24

1 For a discussion on Yaksa (cf also A V. x 8. 15)see Geldner, Vedische Stitdien, in. 126 ff ; also Kena Up.,ui 14-25 ; Deussen, Secfutg Upamsads, p 204, Emleitung.* This is from the well-known A V hymn on the Skam-bha or the Frame of Creation For translation see Muir'aSanskrit Texts, vol v , pp 380-384 ; Ludwig, p 400 ;Deussen, Geschichte, \ 1. 310 ; Griffith, 11. 26 ; and Whit-ney's A.V. vol. n. p 589. The translation is taken fromWhitneyFor translation of A.V. x. 8. see Muir, v., p, 386 ;


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46 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAself-existent, satisfied with the* essence, not deficient many respect, one is not afraid of death. 1 AV x. 8. 44.

They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni ; likewise heis the heavenly-winged eagle , what is one the sages namevariously , they call him Agni, Yama, Matansvan AV ix 10. i#These typical passages point to a continuation^

the same idea in the A V The BrShmanas, tfcffexegetical treatises on the Samhitas', being mainlyguided by the Sruti,8 and starting with the objectof making explicit what is implicitly implied in themantras, may naturally be supposed not to swervefrom the general spirit of the latter What is al-ready explicit in the mantras is sometimes onlyemphasized in these treatises. The transition fromthe earlier thought of the SamhitS to that of theBrahmanas may be noticed, for instance, in R.V.x. 81, where the question is asked

Ludwig, p. 395 ; Deussen, Gesckichie, i 1 318 , Griffith,u. 341 Compare what Deussen remarks on this passage die erste und alteste Stelle, die WIT kennen, in der ruck-haltios der Atman als Weltpnncip proklamiert wird, A Vx 8 44, (Geschichte der Phtlosophie, vol i , p 334)See Whitney's A V , p 561* The BrShmanas m regard to their subject-matter aresupposed by some to be udrtanuvadah i e , they ex-plain in detail what is already given in the Veda. (Cf.YBska, Ntritkta, i. 16. Roth's ed , p 37, uditanavfldahsa^bhavati. )


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DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 47' ' Which was the tree, whichwas the wood, of which theyhewed the earth and hewren ?

This question is repeated in the text of the TaittiriyaBrahmana, and is followed by the answer

' ' Brahman was the tree, thewood from which they hewed~ earth and heaven

: conception of PrajSpati and of Purusa isalso developed in the Va]asaneyi Samhita and theTaittiriya Brahmana. 1 The simple note of unityis also sounded, for instance, in the* Satap Br , iv.2. a. i

sarvam hy ayam atma, i e , this soul is everything We t are, however, mainly concerned with the

Upamsads, which are, as a rule, the final positionsof the BrShmanas. The word is derived from theroot sad, to sit, with the prepositions upa, aear, andt=very (adverbial), and conveys the sense, that

which is imparted to a pupil when he sits very nearhis teacher hence, secret doctrine. The Up-anisads may, therefore, be said to embody the esotericdoctrines of the Vedas They mostly contain philo-sophical expositions, elucidations and discussionson some Vedic passages, and by themselves form amore or less complete and comprehensive philoso-

* Cf. V S. viu. 36 ; xxxi. 18-21 ; XXMV 1-6, etc. j T.A.i. 23. 9 ; T.B. u. 8 8. 8-10 ; u. 8. 9. 6-7 ; ill. 12. 9.


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48 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAphical system, which is the kernel of the whole of thelater philosophy. Their idealism is the groundstoneof the later Vedanta. They are canonical, andquotations from them are held by tradition evercomplete and self-sufficient and require no furthersupport They are final authorities 1 The generaltrend of their thought is towards a thorough-goingmonism, which in its germinal form existed even inthe Vedas, as we have shown above Their fundfrmental formula may be expressed in a well-knowndistich

Brahma satyam jagan mithyaJivo brahmaiva naparah

Brahman is the Reality, the universe is false.The Atman is Brahman, nothing else

In other words, there is only one Reality, call itBrahman or Atman what you will, and the worldaround as which appears so real is not so This isthe central thought which has been so admirably

* It may be interesting to know that the Upamsadsform the chief source of quotations in Sankara's Sariraka-Bhasya According to the frequency of their occurrencearranged in orderChandogya, 809 quotations ; Brhadaranyaka, 565 ;

Taittarfya, 142 ; Mundaka, 129 , Katha, 103 ; Kausitaki,88 ; Svetaivatara, 53 j Agni-Rahasya (Sat Br x ), 40 ;Praina, 38 ; Aitareya (Ait Ar 11 4-6), 22 ; Jabal*, 13 ;NSrftyanlya (Taitt Ar. x.), 9, Isa (Vaj Sam. xl.), 8;Pamgl, 6 j Kena. 5.


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DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 49expanded and developed in various ways in theUpanisads, and what we call the doctrine of MaySis nothing more than an attempt to explain this facthi detail, to show how it is impossible for the worldto be anything more than an appearance as dis-tinguished from Reality, which strictly speaking'is only Brahman.We now come to one of the most important partsMBKjpresent subject, viz., the development of thetheory of Maya through the Upanisads down toSankara. We may remark at the outset that thetheory may be enunciated in two \fays (i) Thatthe world is an illusion or appearance, and (2) Thatthe only reality is the Atman These two state-ments mean the same thing, so that the passageswhich emphasize the statement that the Atman isthe'only reality mean most transparently that allrike (i e., other than the Atman, viz , the world, etc.)

not real. *^The Upanisads when read through without anyguiding principle seem to bristle with startling con-tradictions The world is described as pervadedby the Atman, and it is said that all this is Brah-man, while at the same tune it is asserted that theworld is unreal ; again, it is declared that the Atmancreated the world, while yet it is true that there isno world besides Brahman. All such and other state-ments would perhaps baffle all attempts at explana-tion if only we looked at the external aspect, andsome readers of the Upanisads may consequently


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50 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAwith great impatience pronounce these books to benothing but a mass of crudecontradictions. But itis not so. There is to be traced within the Upani-sads a certain development ( degeneration, fromanother point of view) of Pure Idealism In the Brh.Upanisad * are found certain passages, chiefly in thefirst four chapters, which are connected with the dis-,course of Yajnavalkya, and which furnish the oldestidealistic conception as far as we know . *fT

Yajnavalkya's standpoint is purely metaphysical.He was the leader of the sages, and he is said to havequite reahzed4us identity with the BrahmanOne seems to be earned away by the simple forceof his lofty utterances, which appear to be pouredout from the very depths of his heart after a thoroughrealization of the truths they contain His dialogueswith his wife Maitreyl and with the king 'Jai.akaappeal to us as the clearest enunciations of the truestdhdpo^nt of Idealism, which on account of itsextremely monistic conception cannot be surpassed,a more thorough-going monism being pnma facieimpossible. The burden of the whole throughoutis that

the Atman is the only reality,which at once implies that the world is not real. We

1 The Brhad Up and the Chan Up seem to be the oldestamong the collection It is rather difficult to say which oithese two is the older Judging from style and other evi-dences, especially the parallel texts, etc , it appears thaithe Brh. was the older.


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DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 51shall now examine some of these passages, in orderto give a more concrete* idea of the general positionmaintained by the old idealist

Atm. va are drastavyah srotavyo mantavyo mdi-dhyasitavyo Maitreyi Atmano va are darsanena sravanenamatyS vijnanenaidam sarvam viditam (Brh Up u 4 5)The Atman is to be seen, heard, understood, meditatedfcMaltreyi , by seeing, hearing, understanding and realiz-

ing the Atman, all this world is knownThis is repeated again in iv 5 6.The same idea is expressed by means of three

similes, viz., of the drum (dundubhih), the conch-shell, and the lyre As by holding fast the drum,the conch-shell, the lyre, when they are beingbeaten, all their sounds are as it were caught together,so b*y knowing the Atman all is known, i e , all worthknowing becomes already known When theseInstruments are being sounded one cannot hear any-ihmg else and is confused in the multiplicity of thesounds, but on taking possession of the instruments

the source of all the sounds one seems to havemastered the discord and to have found the key toit all So is the Atman the key to the all, viz , tothe universe , when the Atman is known then there isnothing else that is worth knowing , the multiplicityperishes and the unity asserts its sway. The follow-ing is the passage containing these three similes

sa yathft dundubher hanyamanasya na bahyan sabdan


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52 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAiaknuyad grahanaya, dundubhes tu grahanena dundubhy-aghatasya va sabdo grhltah rh Up 11 4 7 lAs in the midst of drum-beatmg one is unable to grasp

the outer sounds, but on grasping the drum itself the soundproduced by the drum-beating i^ also graspedA most remarkable passage, which in the c

phraseology endorses the conception offound in Bjh 11. 4 14 It runs thus Yatra hi dvaitam iva bhavati tad itara itaram jighratitad itara itaram pasyati tad itara itaram srnoti tad itara

itaraan abhivadeffi tad itara itaram manute tad itara itaram''vijanati, yatra va asya sarvam atmaivabhut tat kena kamjighret tat kena kam pasyet tat kena kam srnuyat tat kenakam abhivadet tat kena kam manvita tat kena kam vijaniyadyenedam sarvam vijanati tarn kena vijaniyad vijnataramare kena vijaniyad iti. Brh Up 11 4- 1.1 '

(Trans )^or where there is duality, as it were, there sees anotheranother thmg, there smells another another thing, there

hears another another thing, there speaks another of anotherthing, there thinks another of another thing, there knowsanother another thing , but where all has become nothingbut the Atman, there how can one smell anything, how seeanything, how hear anything, how speak of anything, howthink of anything, how know anything By what shall oneknow htm, by whom knows one this all ' By what shallone know the knower ?

1 Cf. also Ibid , 11 4 8 The same passage is again foundin iv. 5. 8-10.This famous passage reappears in Brh. Up. iv. 5. 15,with slight alterations.


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DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 53The word iva. (= as it were) is important here. Where there is duality, as it were shows that

duality, which refers to the multiplicity (nanatva)in the world, is unreal , in other words, it is only anappearance The conception of subject and objectis only possible when each of them has at least

ihable existence But when all thisis found to be false, that which wasbject disappears and only the ones as the knower In that sense even

the word subject (in the current sensd'be inadmissible, since it is only a relJhve *when the object perishes, the idea of talso goes with it The distinction is lost, that whichwas real remains as the one, and the unreal, whichnever did actually exist, is found to be a nullity TheAtman being itself the Knower, the self-luminous,the Universal Spirit, does not require any mediumto be known. That is the idea which YajiavaBcyaso simply and yet so forcibly conveys when he says

vijfiataram are kena vijaniyat '

By \\ hat shall the knower be known 'Further on Yajnavalkya, while instructing the

sage Usasta on the nature of the Atman, says na dfster drastaram pasyer na sruter srotiram srnu-yan na mater mantaram manvitha na vijflater vrjfiataram

vijanlyah esa ta Stana sarvantaro 'to 'nyad arttam Brh Up 111 4. 2.(Trans)- Thou couldst not see the seer of sight, thou couldst


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54 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAnot hear the hearer of bearing, thou couldst not think thethinker of thought, thou couldst not know the knower ofknowing This thy Atman is within every being, all elseis full of sorrow (artta)

Here it is shown how the Atman is so near withinone's self that one does not need to go a long way tosearch for it. If the idea of distance is to be used'at all (which is really inadmissible) it may be saidto be the nearest Those who go out to seelt nanywhere else by external means never find it.The attempts at a rigid definition of Brahman areall Mile. Tiffs thought is like that of the popular'tale so well known m India A man had his littlechild on his shoulder and was strolling about in thestreet. All of a sudden, forgetting that he hadthe child with him, he began to proclaim in a loudvoice throughout the city I have lost my cHild ,who has seen it, kindly let me know At last apasser-ly, observing his gross error, gave him asmart slap in the face and turned his eyes upward,when to his utter surprise he found that the lostchild was still on him 1 So exactly is the Atmanalways in us In fact we are never justified insaying in us as truly speaking it is ourself,not it is in us ; the latter would imply that weare different from the Atman The sage heredeclares, therefore, that this Atman is the subject of

i The proverb is technically known in Punjabi as kuc-chad kudi Sahara dhandora.


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DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 55all knowledge, hence unknowable. The categoriesof all knowledge breaK down when stretched witha view to their application to the Atman. And asto all else, which is the other, the sage says ato anyat artam, i e , all else is full of sorrow.This phrase is repeated again in m 5 i, in a dialogueWith Kahola This other than the Self, i.e.,the so-called world, is again denied its reality inR. 8 ii, where Yajnavalkya is instructing Gargi(who was of a highly philosophic temperament) inthe mysterious love of the Brahman.

In Brh Up iv 4 4, again, the simil^of ais employed As he by taking a bit of gojit into various newer and more beautiful forms,so the Atman is supposed to create through Avidydvarious forms, such as the Pitns, the Gandharvas,th< gods, Prajapati, Brahma, etc Here all thevariety of forms is spoken of as amdya, hence unreal.It may, however, be pointed out that simjles iflus-trate only a special aspect of truth and should notbe earned beyond their legitimate sphereThe phrase avidyam gamayitva occurs in

this mantra as well as in the preceding one, wherean example of the caterpillar is given.Another remarkable passage that lends a decisivesupport to this pure idealism occurs in Brh. iv. 4.*9 manasaiva anudrastavyam

mftyoh sa mftyum apnofatya iha naneva pasyafa.


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58 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAsynthesis of the subject and object, or when it Esupposed that speech is able to describe the Self.The knower, the self, can know the known or theobjects, but how can the knower be known ' Thetruth of the idea is not very difficult to grasp, ifone just reflects seriously for a moment If allthings are known only through the I, by whtcan the I itself be known ? The fact o^ thirself-consaousness is ultimate in itself 1 Hence inthis sense the knawer cannot be known, while at

knowledge could be more surelower, the self Here know-* higher and different sense, viz ,

ition or experience (anubhava). Eventhe greatest sceptic could not reasonably deny theexistence of the I, and a higher knowledge ofthis self means the realization of the falsity of thenot-self and of the oneness of the Atman Theseeming* paradox therefore disappears on a littledeeper understanding.Now this oldest, simplest and most thorough-going idealism is found chiefly in the Brh. Up., asshown above, but it is not totally ousted by thelater doctrines m revolt, and so appears scatteredhere and there among the others m the chief Upam-sads as well. The doctrine of the sole reality of

1 Similar analogies may be noticed in European philoso-phy. Descartes, e g , started with this very fact, Cogito,Ufgo sum. Almost all idealists start with self-consciousnessas the ultimate fact.


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DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 59the Atman hence of the falsity of the world,

theMany has never been totally given up later on.

Certainly it has been gradually obscured thoughat the same time shining through by its inherentlight by the huge mass of more realistic or anti-idealistic notions. Such conceptions we may have

Eto refer to briefly later on We hasten;how how this supreme monistic conceptionrough the other Upamsads like a stringthrough the beads of a garlandTurning to the Chandogya U{|with the famous dialogue betvj

son, Svetaketu The son havfVedas, etc , for twelve years withreturned to his father a swollen-headed youngscholar The father tested his knowledge by askinghim if he knew anything about that by which allthat is unheard becomes heard and the unknownbecomes the known, etc The son, failing tt> answer,requests his father to explain to him that know-ledge, and the sage Arum teaches Svetaketu bythe following concrete examples

yatha somya ekena mrtpmdena sarvam mrnmayamvijfiatam syad vacarambhanam vikaro namadheyam mrttt-kety eva satyam Chan Up. vi. i 4.*

1 Cf the same idea in different similes in the followingtwo mantras, Chan. Up. vi. i. 5-6.


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60 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYA(7VWM)-As O good one by (the knowledge of) one ball of earth

everything of the nature of earth is known , the change (ormodification) is an extension of words a mere name, onlythe earth is true 1

Here it is said that by knowing the one the allis known As all the forms into which clay ih clay K

s passacHTheyWI1 Some critics of the Vedanta discove

corroboration of the theory of Pannamtend that as the vanous things of earth (jar pot etc ) are

s of the earth not being creations of the* aut of Sat only) so is the world assubtle sat Some of the modern

i also urge that the world is simply a,, >n of the one principle by whatever nameyou may call it matter sptnt thought or the Atman Accord-ing to these views the Self transforms itself into NaturaNaturata and as a real cause has a real effect the worldmust be a reality The Sankhya system is also based' onsuch a theory which makes the world a reality being anactual modification or de\elopment of real matterThis view appears to be based on an exclusively one^sided interpretation of the passage The whole rests onthe assumption that things like the jar etc are actualtransformations of earth But the passage seems to us toendorse the purely idealistic standpoint making the world,to use later phraseology a vtvarta instead of a vikaraThe vtvarta of a substance is simply its appearance whichin no way implies any alteration in the thing itself , whilea vtkara is the transformation of the substance itself( Vivarta = atattvato 'nyatha pratha , vikara = satattvato 'nyatha pratha ' To take a well known technicalexample milk is substantially transformed into curd orjunket these are two wholly different states one cannotdiscover any m when it is changed into curd Buta jar of earth, even after individuating itself as a jar, does


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DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 61moulded are known by knowing clay, so the mani-fold world is known by knowing the one Atman,since all reality is the Atman and the non-Atmandoes not really exist The many forms aremerely thebeginning of speech (vacarambhanam),only a mere name (namadheyam) without reality..The plurality is all a mere name, hence unreal.1l.^n Ch vi. 2. 1-2, where the process of creationIpf described from the empirical standpoint, thewords ekam-eva-advitiyam _'. the only onewithout a second ) occur, 'essential oneness of the Atr

Again, in Chan. Up vn 23*yo vai bhiima tat sukham, nalpe sukham asti bhumaivasukham bhunia tv eva vijijftasitavya iti (Trans )-That which is the Bhutna (the Great) is happiness, there

*>t cease to be earth , it is earth inside and out, theidea of jar is simply due to the limitations of .nameand form, which are decidedly mind-dependent Theevidence of the jar qua jar is not at all independentSo also when a rope is mistaken for a snake, it is nottransformed into the latter It is the mind imposing theconception of the snake on the rope The former has noindependent existence This example of the rope, etc , 19a typical one for the vivarta-theory, but it is evident howthe implications of the analogy of the earth correspondwith those of this one Hence the passage, judged bothfrom its contextual spirit and analogies, supports the ideaof vivaria, not of vtkdra.

1 The words vacarambhanam vikaro namadheyamteam occur in Chan. UP. vi. *. i-^.


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THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAa is therefore to^5e searched after

In this passage Brahman is spoken of as BhumS(the Great) and only He is said to be bkss allthat is not Brahman (= the A

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The Doctrine of Maya - Prabhudatt Sastri 1911

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