THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com
THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com 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.
"""DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 51shall now examine some of these passages, in orderto give a more concrete idea of the general positionmaintained by the old idealistAtma va are drastavyah srotavyo mantavyo nididhyasitavyoMai treyi Atmano va are darsanena sravanenamatya vijnanenaidam sarvam viditam (Brh. Up. ii. 4. 5).i.e.,The Atman is to be seen, heard, understood, meditatedO Maitreyi ; by seeing, hearing, understanding and realizing the Atman, all this world is known.This isrepeated again in iv. 5. 6.The same idea isexpressed by means of threesimiles, viz., of the drum (dundubhih), the conchshell,and the lyre. As by holding fast the drum,the conch -shell, the lyre, when they are beingbeaten, all their sounds are as it were caught together,so by knowing the Atman all is known, i.e., all worthknowing becomes already known. When theseinstruments are being sounded one cannot hear anything else and is confused in the multiplicity of thesounds, but on taking possession of the instrumentsthe source of all the sounds one seems to havemastered the discord and to have found the key toit all. So is the Atman the key to the all, viz., tothe universe ;when the Atman is known then there isnothing else that is worth knowing the; multiplicityperishes and the unity asserts its sway. The following is the passage containing these three similessa yatha dundubher hanyamanasya na banyan sabdan
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"""DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 51shall now examine some <strong>of</strong> these passages, in orderto give a more concrete idea <strong>of</strong> the general positionmaintained by the old idealistAtma va are drastavyah srotavyo mantavyo nididhyasitavyoMai treyi Atmano va are darsanena sravanenamatya vijnanenaidam sarvam viditam (Brh. Up. ii. 4. 5).i.e.,The Atman is to be seen, heard, understood, meditatedO Maitreyi ; by seeing, hearing, understanding and realizing the Atman, all this world is known.This isrepeated again in iv. 5. 6.The same idea isexpressed by means <strong>of</strong> threesimiles, viz., <strong>of</strong> the drum (dundubhih), the conchshell,and the lyre. As by holding fast the drum,the conch -shell, the lyre, when they are beingbeaten, all their sounds are as it were caught together,so by knowing the Atman all is known, i.e., all worthknowing be<strong>com</strong>es already known. When theseinstruments are being sounded one cannot hear anything else and is confused in the multiplicity <strong>of</strong> thesounds, but on taking possession <strong>of</strong> the instrumentsthe source <strong>of</strong> all the sounds one seems to havemastered the discord and to have found the key toit all. So is the Atman the key to the all, viz., tothe universe ;when the Atman is known then there isnothing else that is worth knowing the; multiplicityperishes and the unity asserts its sway. The following is the passage containing these three similessa yatha dundubher hanyamanasya na banyan sabdan
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