THE Doctrine of Maya - HolyBooks.com

"""68 THE DOCTRINE OF MAYAthat the world was there somehow or other and itcould therefore not be explained away by beingcalledunreal."The inherent empirical tendenciesof our nature are too strong to be wholly conquered ;howsoever they may be subdued, they still rise upat some time and refuse to harmonize with themetaphysical standpoint. Moreover, to the majority who are not given to step beyond the boundaries of empirical understanding such metaphysicalspeculations as are contained in the pure idealismof Yajnavalkya seem hardly to convey any meaning.Yet these minds are not totally to be ignored bythe old sages, they must then make room for someconcession to the empirical consciousness whichrefuses to part with the idea of the reality of theworld. This could be done by granting the existenceof the world and yet maintaining at the same timethat the sole reality is the Atman. This was a sortof degeneration of Idealism into Pantheism, withits doctrine All this is Brahman (Chan.iii.14. i).It may be observed that even in one and the samepassage both these tendencies are sometimes foundmixed up together. The difference between thetwo views is rather subtle. The one -Idealismmaintainsthat Atman alone is real and nothingelse exists besides it ;while the other Pantheismholdsthat the world does exist and yetitaffect thedoes notprinciple of the sole reality of the Atman;since it itself is nothing different from the Atman ;