THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

"""""""""""HISTORY OF THE WORD "MAYA"ndone by hisphysicalwonderful and extraordinarypower but simply by hiswill-powerwills that he may(anekarupagrahanasamarthya)He .assume such and such forms and it is realized ;hence Indra isvery frequently termed mdyin inthe Vedic hymns. Certain mysterious things orresults are produced by this mysterious will-power,and these results being wrfra-ordinary by their verynature may be said to set at naught the ordinaryhuman understanding, which because of its inherentlimitations isapt to be deceived by such phenomena. Hence, the idea of mystery being common to both these meanings, it is quite easy tounderstand the transition from the idea ofteriouswill-powerto that ofdeception."mysInfact the two ideas interpenetrate each other, somuch so that it seems to us rather a forced distinction to make when we speak of the transition.Still,distinctions are to be made, especially when theyhelp us to a clearer understanding of that which isreally beyond them.We may, however, note here in passing thatwhere Indra isspoken of as assuming various forms(cf. especially iii. 53. 8 and vi. 47. 18) it appearsthat the singers of the hymns and Indians of theVedic age in general were not unaware of a distinction between the one and the many, of thepossibility of the one becoming the many and ofthe latter being a deceptive creation of a mysteriouspower.