THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

"""""""DEVELOPMENT OF ITS CONCEPTION 61moulded are known by knowing clay, so the manifold world is known by knowing the one Atman,since all reality is the Atman and the non-Atmandoes not really exist. The many forms aremerely the beginning of speech (vacarambhanam),only a mere name (namadheyam) without reality.The plurality is all a mere name, hence unreal. 1In Ch. vi. 2. 1-2, where the process of creationis described from the empirical standpoint, the("words ekam-eva-advitiyam the only onewithout a second")occur, which point out theessential oneness of the Atman.Again, in Chan. Up. vii. 23.i we readyo vai bhuma tat sukham, nalpe sukham asti bhumaivasukham bhuma tv eva vijijnasitavyaiti."(Trans.)That which is the Bhuma (the Great)ishappiness, therenot cease to be earth ;it is earth inside and out, theidea of far is simply due to the limitations of nameand form, which are decidedly mind-dependent. Theevidence of the jar qua jar is not at all independent.So also when a ropeis mistaken for a snake, it is nottransformed into the latter. It is the mind imposing theconception of the snake on the rope. The former has noindependent existence. This example of the rope, etc., isa typical one for the vivarta-theory, but it is evident howthe implications of the analogy of the earth correspondwith those of this one. Hence the passage, judged bothfrom its contextual spirit and analogies, supports the ideaof vivarta, not of vikara.1The words "vacarambhanam vikaro namadheyam"again occur in Chan. Up. vi, 4. 1-3.