THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

"""36 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAthe Svetasyatara Upanisad (iv. 10),but the ideamay be traced to the later stage of the Vedic civilization. We shall endeavour to show that the conception, though not in a systematic and organicform, is already found in the R.V. and the Upanisads.Philosophy, as reflective thought, or the thinkingconsideration of things,1did actually begin withthings ;that is to say, the firstgerms of philosophybegan to appear with an attempt to explain theconcrete realities in the environment, i.e., the Universe. A yearning was noticeable in the humanbreast to comprehendAnd as all higher development isthe source of all existence.from the concreteto the abstract, thought too followed the same course,and after passing through the stages in which thedifferent forces of nature, or various other elements,such as water, air, fire, etc., began to be imaginedas the chief source of all existences, the point wasreached where thewas found to yield nomanysatisfactory explanation of its being, and a desire wasfelt to know the mystery, the underlying unity.With the advance in thought, the principle of unityattracted more and more attention, so much so thatas early as in R.V. i.164 (" ekarp sad vipra bahudhavadanti i.e., the poets speak of the One Beingunder various names), the multiplicity was felt tobe due to a mode of speech only, not real in itself,i Cf .Schwegler, Geschichte der Philosophie, Stuttgart, EinleitungPhilosophieren 1st Nachdenken, denkende Betrachtungder :Dinge,"