THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

""""58 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAsynthesis of the subject and object, or when it issupposed that speechis able to describe the Self.The knower, the self, can know the known or thebut how can the knower be known ? Theobjects,truth of the idea is not very difficult to grasp,ifone just reflects seriously for a moment. If allthings are known only through the "I," by whatcan the I itself be known ? The fact of thisself-consciousness is ultimate in itself. 1 Hence inthis sense the knower cannot be known, while atthe same time no knowledge could be more surethan that of the knower, the self. Hereknowledge is used in a higher and different sense, viz.,self-realization or experience (anubhava). Eventhe greatest sceptic could not reasonably deny theexistence of the "I,"and a higher knowledge ofthis self means the realization of the falsity of thenot-self and of the oneness of the Atman. Theseeming paradox therefore disappearson a littledeeper understanding.Now this oldest, simplest and most thoroughgoing idealism is found chiefly in the Brh. Up., asshown above, but it is not totally ousted by thelater doctrines in revolt, and so appears scatteredhere and there among the others in the chief Upanisadsas well. The doctrine of the sole reality of1Similar analogies may be noticed in European philosophy. Descartes, e.g., started with this very fact, Cogito,ergo sum. Almost all idealists start with self-consciousnessas the ultimate fact.