THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

"84 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAus may bring home to us a better idea of the teachings of these treatises in general, and of the place ofthe pure Idealism (which may otherwise be namedas the conception of Maya) in Indian thought as awhole.We shall presently see how the great Sankarasynthesises all these forms of thought into a singlewhole, in which each has a proper place beside theother, and how he saves the Pure Idealism by thehelp of the Sruti as well as reason. But we must notanticipate him. Before we discuss his Advaitismand what he has to say on the theory of Maya, wehave to refer to the philosophy of another greatAdvaitist, Gaudapdda. This name is in no way to beidentified with the author of a commentary onIsvara Krsna s Sankhya Karika. 1 The AdvaitistGaudapada was the teacher of Govinda, the teacherof Sankara. He has left to us one of the most wonderful expositions of the fundamentals of Advaitism,calledKarikas on the Mandukya Upanisad."1 On this point compare the views of Deussen, Systemdes Veddnta, p. 26 ; Garbe, Sdnkhya-Philosophie, p. 61 ;Weber, Ak. VorL, Zweite Auflage, pp. 178, 254, 260 ; Hall,Contributions towards an Index, p. 86 ; Gough, Philosophyof the Upanisads, p. 240 ;Max Miiller, Six Systems ofIndian Philosophy, p. 292 ; Colebrooke, MiscellaneousEssays, 1837, vol. i., p. 95, 104, 233 ; Wilson, Text andEnglish Translation of the Sankhya-Karika, p. 257 ; WTindischmann,Sankara, Bonn, 1830, p. 85, etc.I am indebted for these references to Max Walleser sDer altere Vedanta, Heidelberg, 1910, p. i.