THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

PREFACETHE Doctrine of Maya is the pivotal principle inthe 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 Vedantaby Sankara and his followers. Some critics believethat it isimported from Buddhism and receiveshardly any countenance from the Upanisads. Thepoint is still debated, and it isonly 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