THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

""""DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 89it must be noted that it isonly from a relative standpoint that dreams are spoken of as unreal and thewaking condition as real. Truly speaking, both areunreal. Even as to the phenomena in dreams, thoughthe whole of them are known to be unreal, none thelessthe facts arrange themselves under reality andunreality (ii. 9. 10).Now, if the whole of our experience in both thewaking and the dreaming conditions ispronouncedto be an illusion, well might an objector come forward to say Who is then the knower or creator ofexperience ? (ii. n). If you say none you atonce destroy the reality of the Atman, which wouldbe laying an axe at the very foot of all Vedanta, sincethe conception of the reality of the Atman is the verylife of it.The Atman, we reply, is the cogniser of experience. He is himself the cogniser and the cognised.He imagines himself by himself, i.e., brings about thevariety of experience by himself. It all subsistsalso in himself through the power of Maya. Thisis the last word of the Vedanta on this subject (ii.12).Our waking experiences are as much an illusion as,those of dreams.For the phenomena of dreams arefor the time as real as those of waking.The difference is not in the nature of any of these experiencesas such ;it is caused only by the instruments ofcognition (ii. 15).The Atman is the only reality.As the rope, whose