THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

""64 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAcolour such notions. In i. 2. the 5, god of Deathpoints out to Naciketa how the ignorant in theiravidya follow one another like the blind.avidyayam antare vartamanah svayamdhirah panditammanyamanah,dandramyamanah pariyanti mudhah andhenaiva myamana1yathandhah."(Cf. Mund. Up.i. 2. 8.)(Trans.}Dwelling in the midst of darkness, wise in their ownconceit," z and taking themselves to be very learned, theignorant go round and round, staggering to and fro, likeblind men led by the blind.Such are the people who always look to the external and the immediate aspect of things and neverlook beyond. Imitating others blindly, they alsoimagine the not-self to be the self. And such peoplein their own ignorance regard themselves verylearned (panditam-manyamanah), because selfconceitis the index to shallowness of knowledgeor ignorance. The more one knows, the humblerone becomes.The most satisfactory passages, however, comelater in Katha ii. The one is almost identical withBrh. iv. 4. 19, which has already been quotedabove.1 Cf. Mund. Up.i. 2. 8 ;Katha Up.ii.5 ; also Maitr.vii. 9. (where we have only *jw?rRT: *or2See S.B.E. xv., p. 8.