THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

"""""OBJECTIONS WITHIN THE VEDANTA 123inadmissible. It wholly rests upon his suppositionof the reality of Avidyd.2. The Charge of Tirodhdndnupapatti.The supposed ignorance cannot, as maintained by its upholders, conceal Brahman, whoseessential nature is self-luminosity. The concealment of luminosity means either (a)the obstructionof the origination of luminosity, or (b)the destruction of existing luminosity. But as it is held thatthe luminosity of Brahman is incapable of being aproduced thing, the concealment of luminosity mustmean the destruction of luminosity, which, in otherwords, amounts to the destruction of the essentialnature of Brahman.Criticism. This objection is based upon Ramanujas losing hold of the real position of the upholdersof"Maya. Our ignoranceismerely negative.It has no positive existence to be able to concealanything else in the strict sense. Brahman is everthe same in its splendour and luminosity, but we failto see itonly through our own avidyd, which can,therefore, in no way be said to be able to concealBrahman in the sense of destroying its luminosity.In the same way,if a follower of Ramanuja were toask Kant,Why do we not see the thing-in- itself(das Ding-an-sich ) ? he would "at once reply,Because between that and ourselves are the intellectual forms (upddhis] of Time, Space, and CausaThus we are not explaining away the diffility."culty pointed out by Ramanuja when we say that