THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

"50 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAwith great impatience pronounce these books to benothing but a mass of crude contradictions. But itis not so. There is to be traced within the Upanisadsa certain development (" degeneration," fromanother point of view) of Pure Idealism. In the Brh.Upanisad x are found certain passages, chiefly in thefirst four chapters, which are connected with the discourse of Yajnavalkya, and which furnish the oldestidealistic conception as far as we know.Yajnavalkya s standpoint is purely metaphysical.He was the leader of the sages, and he is said to havequite realized his identity with the Brahman.One seems to be carried away by the simple forceof his lofty utterances, which appear to be pouredout from the very depths of his heart after a thoroughrealization of the truths they contain. His dialogueswith his wife Maitreyi and with the king Janakaappeal to us as the clearest enunciations of the truestandpoint of Idealism, which on account of itsextremely monistic conception cannot be surpassed,a more thorough-going monism being prima facieimpossible. The burden of the whole throughoutis thatthe Atman isthe only reality,"which at once implies that the world is not real.Wei The Brhad Up. and the Chan. Up. seem to be the oldestamong the collection. It is rather difficult to say which ofthese two is the older. Judging from style and other evidences, especially the parallel texts, etc., it appears thatthe Brh. was the older.