THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

""90 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAnature is not known as such at that time, isimaginedin the dark to be a snake, a line of water, a stick, orany one of numerous similar things, so is the Atmanimagined to be the variety of experience, Jiva,Prdna, etc. (ii. 17). All illusion vanishes when acomplete knowledge of the rope is attained, suchknowledge persisting for all time. So too is confirmed the right knowledge that all is one, viz., theAtman (ii. 12). It is only the power of illusionwhich makes us imagine the Atman as the varietyof numberless visible objects (ii. 19).As dream and illusion are entirely unreal, thoughactually perceived, so is the cosmos an illusion, anunreality, though experienced as real. Only theignorant regard such illusions as real. The Scriptural texts amply set forth the unreality of the cosmos (ii. 31). The absolute truth is that there is, as amatter of fact, no dissolution, no creation, none inbondage, no pupilage, none desirous of liberation,none liberated. In other words, when it is established that the Atman alone is real and all duality isan illusion, it follows that all that forms the subjectof experience, whether derived from ordinary intercourse or from sacred texts, is mere illusion.In theabsolute sense of the word, therefore, Destructionis impossible. So too creation, etc. (ii. 32). TheAtman is ever free from all imaginations and is neverin relation to any conditions. He is the negation ofthe phenomenal,because of his essential nature ofunity. But only the sages, free from attachment,