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”^ The impression, conveyed by the notion connected with such words and phrases as ‘the world of sight,’ *the chained ])risoners,' 'the shadows,’ ‘the way up- wards or the ascent,’ ‘the reflection,’ 'the idea of good and right,’ ‘the rejoicing on passing from the darkness to the light,’ ‘the Sun,’ ‘the attainer'of the beatific vision ;’ and ‘the three kinds of makers or artists — the Lord, the carpenter, and the painter, of things or creation — the real, the imitated and imagined,’ — is almost identical with what is con- veyed by the Vedanta terms, r?:., the Dras'yamnna Via'va, (3ftw)the Jivet, (^FTT-JIFn') the Chlidyd or MCiyd^ (fTHJTT^) the Jmna-Mdrga, (sifdF*(4l) the Pratihimha, the Snvichdnui, the Tuttva-Jnaiidncmda, the Lord, the Jnuid-, and the Is'mrct sras'thi, Jiva-sras'thi, and Mano- rdjya. &c. The ecstatic bliss felt and experienced by the mind 1. The Dialogues of Plato, translated by Jowett. Vol. III. pp. 128-129. 100 of him who could return to Brahman, his Self, the highest Self, after becoming pure, serene, and en- lightened by the true knowledge is unspeakable. This is a truth for those who can comprehend it, and an extravagance for those who cannot. 101 CHAPTER II. Maya. After unfolding the conception of Brahman the VedS-nta proceeds to describe (jTPTl) Illusion, the self-feigning world-fiction, and emanation, creation projected by her, and the pro- cess of things during a period of evolution, though' it is not directly concerned with it. The A’edanta, however, ijicidentally touches the subject, but in truth leaves the learner to adopt any theory that might satisfy him, and thus becomes the most eclectic, selecting from all rational schools the doctrines that would best serve his ])Ui'pose. The more one examines creation, the more be- wildered he finds himself, and becomes hopeless of understanding it, seeing its infinite multiplicity and variableness. The conviction grows upon him that, ‘human knowledge, at its best, goes but a very little way back to wauls the beginning of its tilings. Tt is so baffling.’ The Vedanta, therefore, at once assumes one Originant of the ever-changing and astounding creation, Maya. One of a few theories, propounded and propagated by the Vedanta as the least objectionable, is to ascribe Maya^ to an infinitesimal quarter of the ]. Many names are given her. Nature or plastic origin of all, (ajfiiwi) Non-knowledge, Energy, Power, Force, &c. Ill a note on lii.s poem on Maya, the Earl of Southesk says; — “ The liveliness of the Nature-Spirit leads man to seek her for Ills own, but her being is too subtle to be grasped; bo, to escape despair, he must either renounce her for the sensuous 'World- Spirit, or win his way to her at last through the union with the Heaven-Spirit.” p. 233. 102 highest Self, whose existence-knowledge-joy is re- flected in her as the rays of the sun are reflected in a mirage. This reflection gives her a little partial reality and great powers. M^y^ (inn), the Vedantin proclaims, is that which defies definition. The word May4 (*?!???) consists of two letters which are originally two words, -(w) M4 and (?n) yil. The first means hiot’ and the second ‘that’. She is consequently interpi'eted to be that, w^hich in the darkness of ignorance, is, but when be- ing sought w'ith the light of right knowledge, is not. She is so eluding that, like the horizon, she appears and tempts, but is never to be caught. She is the type of uncertainty and change. She is incessantly and marvellously changing. She is the greatest riddle, and partakes both of existence and of non-existence. No sooner is the mind fixed on her than she appears quite different every instant and perpetually. She is capable of engendering any and all possible and impossible phenomena. She is constituted of three qualities ( ), viz, {^ 1 ^) goodness or purity, ( passion or acti- vity, and darkness or ignorance (indifference). The infinitesimal quarter of Brahman reflected in her form characterised by ( ) pure goodness, and by which she is rided, is called ( ) Sarvajna Is vara, the omniscient Lord. This Lord, owing to His association with Maya, through reflec- tion, is sometimes called also the originant of the everchanging — phenomenal but not fictitious— and astounding Jagat, emanation. It may be observed here that in ti’eating of M4yS. 103 and M4y4’s various effects, which are naturally in- numerable and inexpressible, some apparently dif- ferent views are given by the Tndian philosophic schools and even by the Vedanta school itself. They are so for the benefit of learners, and are not irrecon- cilable. Keeping in mind the unequal mental capacities of learners, they arc intended as so many stepping-stones to the one truth, — ‘that Brahman alone is real.’ M^y4 is called ( 5Tf% ) power and ( St^f^ ) nature of the Lord. Name and form are her figments and presentations. She is the germ of the entire expanse of the phenomenal world. ^ She is indescribable or inexplicable and ( ) can only be inferred, like ether, from her effects, and is capable of everything and anything unimaginable and impossible. When the same Mitya is characterised by good- ness mixed with the other two qualities of passion and darkness, and assumes various forms and rules individual living souls, she is called ( ) Nes- cience, the subjective ignoi’ance of individuals. May^ may be regarded both in parts and in the whole. Viewed in parts, she is the particular illu- sion that veils from each form of life ( ) its own true nature (^g^qr) as the one and only Self (stRUT). Under her influence every kind of sentient being is said to identify itself, not with the Self ( ) that is one and the same in all, but with its counter- feit presentment ( ). Mi\yi\, regarded in the whole is the Upddhi, adjunct, of Is' vara, the Lord; 1. See the Brahma-SiUrag, II, 1, 14. 104 regarded in parts is TJpddhis, adjuncts of individual souls. Thus every living thing is a fictitiously de- tached portion, an illusive emanation of Brahman. Mdya, associated with Is'vara and viewed as a whole, is the cosmical illusion ( f%$nTnn ), associated with Jivas, individual souls and viewed as parts is indivi- dual illusion ( )• The sum total of the universal Avldyds is called May4, the cause of the objective phenomenal world. Or, in other words, the individual ignorance, the microcosm, is Av 'uhjd ( ) Nescience, and the universal primeval ignorance, the )nacrocosm, is Mdya. Avidyd also means what is opposed to Vidyd, knowledge. Mayd is termed ( ) the Sat-asat- vilaxand, that is to say, she cannot be called cither ‘ Sad real, or ‘Amt/ unreal. ' Sat ’ is that which really is, and which never ceases to be. As Miiya is anni- hilated by the Vedanta knowledge, and consequently ceases to be, she is not ‘ Sat/ real. Before the Vedanta knowledge she is there, for all practical purposes, and therefore she cannot be called ‘ Asat, ’ unreal. She is therefore extraordinary. It is by this extraordinary and creative May^ that all the individual Egos and the whole pheno- menal world seem to exist. MayiVprojected-emana- tion — creation of name and form, is ( VydvahdriJca ) practically or phenomenally real, but not ( Pdramdr- thilca ) really real in the highest sense in which Brahman is real. Emanation is real so far as it is phenomenal, for nothing can be phenomenal except as the phenomenon of something that is real, or except as super-imposed on something that is real. 105 It is stated in ih.e Bralma-Sntras ih^i : — has the highest Lord for her substratum, and has the causal potentiality of illusion. She is called ( ) undeveloped, unmanifested, since she can- not be defined either as that which is or that which is not’ ( 1,4,3. ). It is also stated in the Brahma- Sutr an that: — ‘MAyA or Nescience ( si^t) makes us conceive body and other things contained in the sphere of the Not-self ( Andtman ) as ourselves ; from it there spring desires with regard to whatever promotes the well-being of the body and so on, and aversions with regard to whatever tends to injiu-e it’ ( 1,3,2 ). The Bhagvad-GHd pronounces: — ‘Modifications and attributes are all Pral-nti-horn.’ Annie Besant's Translation. MAyA or Prahnti is the cause of Samsdra, emana- tion, creation. Is'vara, the Lord, through Prah'iti causes the origin, subsistence, and re-absorption of the universe All emanations or modifications ( Vihdras ) from Buddhi ( mind ) to the phj^sical body, and all qualities ( Guna^ ) such as those which manifest themselves as pleasure, pain, delusion, and other mental states spring from Prakriti, the MAj'A, — composed of three Gunas — goodness, passion, and darkness.’ Thus ( ITHTT ) MAyA with the reflection of the Infinite Highest Self into her, and with the Highest Self immanent in her, is the Creator of all Creations, 1. Soe the Bhagvad-Oitd with S'ankara Bh&shja, XIII, 19. 106 and a first cause of all causes. She is supposed to have no beginning, but to have an end; to have two powers — ( ) powder of envelopment, and power of projection. The Universe is supposed to be protracted out of and retracted into her. Her Production, Evolution, and Development are inconceiv'able. They are so extraordinary that they cannot be called either ( entity, or ( non-entity. Though some of them are tangible and clear, yet they elude the scientist, philosopher, and the entire body of wise men, when they attempt to analyse them and explain their phenomena, and make them confess that ‘ Nescience (srfw^-JTPTT ) presents itself at some stage or other before them, and that their explanation is impossible.’ In the Panchadas'i,’ Chitradipa VI. Mays!