THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

"""mayam""""""""""HISTORY OF THE WORD "MAYA"17maya (i. I6), 1 the Svetasvatara Up. maya (i. io), 2mayam, mayinam (iv. io), 3 may!, 4 and mayaya(iv. 9).Among the later Upanisads too the word occurs ;the forms maya, mayam, mayaya in Nrp. Up. (iii.i ;5v. i)and in Nrut. Up. (Khanda Q), 5 mayamatramin Nrut. Up. (i5and 5).In Cul. Up. (3) 6we read1Bibl. Indie, vol. viii. No. 29. Here Maya is spoken ofas a defect along with jihmam (moral crookedness) andanrtam (telling a lie). It is itself mithyacararupadosa(the defect of hypocrisy).2Here maya means the great cosmic illusion. In hiscom. on the passage Sankara adds, sukhaduhkhamohatmakasesaprapancarupamaya," i.e., the whole worldas a sum-total of pleasure, pain, delusion, etc.3Here the Prakrti of the Sankhya is spoken of as maya.Cf.4 tu prakrtim viddhi mayinam tu manes varam."The Great Lord is called mayl here and in the following stanza. He is said to create the universe only by hismaya-s akti.The Nrsimha-Tapani Upanisad," Bibl. Indica, Cal.,5"1871. As these and other minor Upanisads are not easilyavailable we give the following quotations in full :Mayava esa narasimhi," natmanarn maya Ksetramksetram va mayaisa sampadyate," maya ca tamo-sprSati,"rupanubhuteh," evam evaisa maya," maya cavidyaca svayam eva bhavati," mayam etam ^aktim vidyat,"ya etam mayam saktim veda," mayaya va etat sarvamvestitam," "mayaya vahirvestitam," "mayaya hy anyadmudha iva vyavaharann aste iva," mayay aiva," "may"aya nasamvittihsvaprakaSe," trayam apy etat (and trayamatrapi) susuptam svapnam mayamatram," (Nrut i),idam sarvam yad ayam atma mayamatram" (Nrut. 5).6For Culika and other Upanisads see the Collection of