THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 95genesis of appearances. The conception of Mayawas by him developed into a more or less systematicwhole, which was afterwards still further elaboratedby Saiikara. The general sketch we have here givenof Gaudapada s idealism will suffice for our purpose,and without dwelling on itany more we now passpn to the final synthesis of the doctrine in Saiikara.In passing,it may be observed that there is hardlyany teacher of note, between the times of Gaudapadaand Saiikara, who contributed anything worththe name to the development of the idea of Maya.There may perhaps have been some, but unfortunately their names have not come down to Weus.purposely omit in this chapter the discussion ofBadarayanas Sutras for reasons which are not without justification. The Sutras, as they stand apartfrom Sankara scommentary or any other exposition of them, may hardly be said to yield one definite,fixed and indisputable interpretation, either infavour of or against any doctrine of the Vedanta.Saiikara, Ramanuja, and many other expositors,including some of the very modern ones, have respectively attempted to wield the Sutras as weaponsfor the defence and support of their own interpretations and conceptions of the chief metaphysicalproblems. None of them isprima facie open toreconciliation with the others. In face of such factsit would indeed be worth the trouble to go deeplyinto the problem, viz., how far can the Sutras assuch be made to give any definite interpretation