THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

""""126 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAa cognition has neither the positive characteristicsof an entity nor the negative characteristics of anon-entity, then all things may become the objectsof all cognitions.Criticism. This difficulty is couched in a veryclever and catchy way. Yet the whole rests on amisconception, viz., the want or perceiving clearlytertium comparationis"is in e.ach case.what theSat and asat sound two contradictory conceptions,and to say that a thing an(" object of cognition ")is neither sat nor asat is not to say anything about itat all. But the thingisthought of in two whollydifferent aspects, and the tertium comparationis isnot common to both.Maya, we say, is neither sat nor asat, neither anentity nor anon-entity." It is not sat, sincethe Atman alone is real, and it is not asat, since itappears at least, or in other words, maintains itselfas an iva as it were(" ").Where is the contradiction now ? Does not this veryfact allow us tospeak of Maya as something mysterious, incapableof a strict definition ?5. The charge of Pramdndnupapatti.Is there any means by which this curious avidydisbrought within the range of our cognition ? Itcan neither be proved by perception nor by inference. Neither can it be established by revelation,as the scripturalwise.passages can be explained otherCriticism. In the light of what we have said