THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com
THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com
""""130 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAin two opposite forms will be meaningless if one ofthe forms were not supposed to be due to Avidya.How can a being exist in two contradictory forms ?Cit and acit are two opposite notions in the system ofRamanuja, but he has not succeeded in reconcilingtheir existence by merely saying that they are twomodes of the Absolute. To picture the universe asthe body of Brahman is after all a mere analogy,which hardly makes the matter even a jot clearer.Even by investing God with all auspicious attributes, how will Ramanujaaccount for the existenceof evil "(moral)or error (psychological)?Simplyto say, as did Plato, that God is good, hence theuniverse must be good,is no explanation, but amere shirking of the question. Like Plato, Ramanuja uses many analogies and metaphors whilespeaking of Brahman, but the Advaitist cannotbut take all these as mere mythical representations.Hence, with our denial of the qualified aspect ofBrahman as a metaphysical truth is linked the denialof the impossibility of the knowledge which has anattributeless Brahman for its object/Avidya being like darkness is itself expelled whenlight comes in. Jnana is the remover of ajnana.As we have already pointed out above, the expressionknowledge of Brahman is strictly inadmissible,since Brahman is itself knowledge (Jndna) of coursethe term being used in the higher sense ofconsciousness."pure
""""""""OBJECTIONS WITHIN THE VEDANTA 1317. The Charge of Nivrttyanupapatti.The removal of the Advaitin s hypotheticalignoranceis quite impossible. The individualsoul s bondage of ignoranceis determined byKarma and is a concrete reality. It cannot therefore be removed by any abstract knowledge butonly by divine worship and grace. Moreover,according to the Advaitins the differentiation between the knower, knowledge, and the known isunreal ;and even that knowledge, which is capableof removing avidya has to be unreal and has tostand in need of another real removing knowledge.Criticism. Our struggle with Karma is undoubtedly real so longas our consciousness of the truenature of Brahman has not arisen. Karma, itsdeterminations, and with iteverything else, issupposed to be real, but only so far. We have alreadyquoted passages from Sankara where he clearly andunequivocally makes this concession, vydvahdricallyfrom the (i.e., practical or empiric point ofview), as he calls it. It may therefore be called abut with the explicit understandconcrete reality,"ing that such a reality is after all phenomenal."We do not hold the efficacy of Karma in the case ofone who has attained the knowledge of Brahman ;such a man, being free from all desires and motives,all springs of action, is pari passu beyond the control of Karma in so far as he is not creating any freshand new Karma for himself. The laws of Karmaare valid within the phenomenal, but in no way do
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""""130 <strong>THE</strong> DOCTRINE OF MAYAin two opposite forms will be meaningless if one <strong>of</strong>the forms were not supposed to be due to Avidya.How can a being exist in two contradictory forms ?Cit and acit are two opposite notions in the system <strong>of</strong>Ramanuja, but he has not succeeded in reconcilingtheir existence by merely saying that they are twomodes <strong>of</strong> the Absolute. To picture the universe asthe body <strong>of</strong> Brahman is after all a mere analogy,which hardly makes the matter even a jot clearer.Even by investing God with all auspicious attributes, how will Ramanujaaccount for the existence<strong>of</strong> evil "(moral)or error (psychological)?Simplyto say, as did Plato, that God is good, hence theuniverse must be good,is no explanation, but amere shirking <strong>of</strong> the question. Like Plato, Ramanuja uses many analogies and metaphors whilespeaking <strong>of</strong> Brahman, but the Advaitist cannotbut take all these as mere mythical representations.Hence, with our denial <strong>of</strong> the qualified aspect <strong>of</strong>Brahman as a metaphysical truth is linked the denial<strong>of</strong> the impossibility <strong>of</strong> the knowledge which has anattributeless Brahman for its object/Avidya being like darkness is itself expelled whenlight <strong>com</strong>es in. Jnana is the remover <strong>of</strong> ajnana.As we have already pointed out above, the expressionknowledge <strong>of</strong> Brahman is strictly inadmissible,since Brahman is itself knowledge (Jndna) <strong>of</strong> coursethe term being used in the higher sense <strong>of</strong>consciousness."pure