THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

OBJECTIONS WITHIN THE VEDANTA 121Vallabha was preceded in his line of thought byNimbarka and Visnuswami. He attempted to purifythe visistadvaita of Ramanuja and others. Hesaid it was a contradiction in terms to suppose withRamanuja that Brahman all cit, intelligenceshould be in inseparable union with acit (non-intelligent matter, jada) Brahman is . sat, cit, and dnanda ;exhausts the possibility of all being, and becomeswhatever it wills by the evolution (avirbhava) andinvolution (tirobhava) of its properties. WhereasSankara explains the phenomena of the universe byadhydsa, Ramanuja by qualitative and inherentdifferences in Brahman, Madhva by manifestationof Brahman s body, Vallabha does so by the processof evolution and involution of Brahman.After this very brief summarytrines of the schools within the Vedanta, we comeof the chief docto Ramanuja s criticism of the theory of Maya.This is embodied in his greatest work, The Sribhdsya,a"~cSinmentary on Badarayana s Brahmasutras.His exposition of the first Sutra occupies the largestspace in his treatise, and this criticism appears underthe same division. 1Ramanuja brings seven chargesagainst the doctrine of Maya. We reproduce thegist-of each, in order, with a criticism of our own.i. The charge of Asraydnupapatti.What is the dsraya (seat) of Maya (or avidya) ?Residing in what does it produce illusion ? Surely1See Srlbhasya, trans. Rangacarya and Varadaraja,Madras, 1899, pp. 156-241