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A Series of Lessons on the Inner Teachings of the Philosophies and Religions of India1182
established in the Hindu mind—the one was recognized as the Source of
All—or all itself.
Our second lesson, on the Inner Teachings, has shown you the fundamental
conception, which was accepted in a general way by all, notwithstanding
the many attempts to account for the manifestation of the material universe.
In a general way the orthodox dogmas held merely that that, or Brahman,
had “manifested” or “emanated” the universe and the individual souls,
without attempting to state just “how” the transformation was effected—
how the One became Many. It was recognized that the universe must have
proceeded from the substance of the Infinite and Eternal Brahman, for the
Hindu mind would never admit that “something can come from nothing”;
but just “how” this change took place was in doubt. Many of the schools
had taught that Brahman had in some way divided Itself up into individual
souls, and the material universe, although there was here the difficulty of
escaping the fundamental idea that Brahman was indivisible. The most
favoured conception was that of an emanation, as the light from the sun;
the odour from the flower, etc. Kapila in his Sankhya philosophy held to
the dual-aspect of the manifestation, viz.: (1) the innumerable individual
souls, or Purusha; and (2) the Prakriti, or Nature, which supplied the material
substratum, and in which the Purushas were entangled and involved. But
there was always the general conception of a duality, or at least a dualaspect
of the One and the Many.
And at this point the Vedantists stepped in with the conception of Idealism,
which held that the One was the Only Reality, and that consequently all else
that appeared to be must be illusory, or an appearance of the One as Many,
without an actual separation of the One into parts. This illusory universe was
due to Avidya, or Ignorance, occasioned by Maya, or Illusory Appearance.
The conception, in its last analysis, is most subtle and super-metaphysical,
almost defying explanation except in its own terms. But we shall attempt it
here, nevertheless.