THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

""io6THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAboth are unreal. The difference does notlie in the very nature of things, since the factstated above under the first head is indubitably true.If the ultimate reality isnothingbut the OneAtman, how is it that we perceive multiplicity here ?How do we find so many Jivas ? Are they differentfrom the Absolute, or are they parts of it, or what ?What is this differentiation due to ? What is theprinciple of individuation ? To all such questionsSarikara answers with the aid of the theory of Maya.All these differences are only due to the impositionof name (nama) and form (rupa). Here he says inthe course of his exposition on ii. i. 14Belonging to the Self, as it were, of the omniscientLord, there are name and form, the creations of Avidya,not to be defined either as being Brahman nor differentfrom it, the germs of the entire expanse of the phenomenalworld, called in ruti and Smrti the power of Illusion(mayasaktih) Thus the Lord dependsor Prakrti. . . .as Lord upon the limiting adjuncts of name and form, theproducts of Avidya ;. . . while in reality none of thesequalities belong to the Self whose true nature is cleared, byright knowledge, from all adjuncts whatever. ... In thismanner the Vedanta-texts declare that for him who hasreached the state of truth and reality the whole apparentworld does not exist."Again, on i. 3. 19, refuting the view that theindividual soul is not identical with the Universal,Sankara remarksSome are of opinionthat the individual soul, as such,