Note on the doctrine of māyā

Note: this text is extracted from Book XII, chapter 70

The interesting allegory on pp. 30, 31 of our text propounds the doctrine of māyā and of the power of tapas (austerities) and dhyāna (meditation) to destroy the weavings of Karma (acts and their retribution). The doctrine of māyā forms such an important tenet in the great Vedānta philosophy that the following short account may prove interesting to readers unacquainted with a doctrine which still pervades the philosophy of the great mass of thinkers in India to-day.

The word māyā is a term used in Vedānta philosophy to denote “cosmic illusion,” the creation of the world of experience, which in reality is merely an illusion of the soul, due to avidyā (ignorance, or false knowledge). In Ṛg-Veda times the word meant "cunning,” “mysterious will-power,” “magic wiles,” and such like.

It was only in the Upaniṣads that it began to assume the meaning of "cosmic illusion,” when the doctrine of the ātman was introduced. The ātman can be described as signifying "the self in contrast to that which is not self.” In its philosophical sense, therefore, it is both relative and negative. It points to something which is not the ātman, while its positive sense lies in that which is to be excluded, or in other words, the concept states only what the principle is not, and not what it is. Being thus empty of content, the value of such terms in the science of metaphysics is obvious. Many words (e.g. ápxrj, ov, substantia, etc.) have been invented to signify the inner principle of the universe, exclusive of the whole content of the phenomenal world, but ātman alone " touches the precise point at which the inner, obscure, never-appearing essence of things reveals itself.” There is another word used in close association with ātman, the word brahman. Originally meaning " prayer,” it came to signify " the essential principle of the world.” It will thus be seen that the two words largely coincide. Wherever a difference is observable Brahman means the eternal principle as realised in the whole world, and ātman the same principle as realised in ourselves. As Brahman and ātman are alone real, all else, including the universe, is māyā.

Whereas in the Upaniṣads the existence of the world is granted, although the ātman still remains the sole reality, we find that in the Vedānta a system of advaita—i.e. “non-duality”—is advocated. This is the main difference between the Vedānta and its great rival philosophy the Sāṅkhya. Of the early work in the Vedānta, one of the most important is the Kārikā of Gauḍapāda (eighth century a.d.). He strongly supports the doctrine of māyā. The universe does not exist. The waking world is no more real than the world of dreams. The ātman is both the knower and the known; his experiences exist within him through the power of māyā. As a rope in a dim light is mistaken for a snake, so the ātman is mistaken for the variety of experience (jīva). When the rope is recognised, the illusion of the snake at once disappears; when true knowledge of the ātman is attained, the illusion which makes us think of it as a multiplicity of experiences vanishes. The world has no more real existence than the snake, and, as one cannot remove or cast off what does not exist, it is wrong to speak of obtaining freedom from it. The ātman cannot be said to create or cause the universe any more than the rope creates the snake. Production would be either from the existent or from the non-existent; but the former is impossible, for it would be producing what already exists, and the latter is equally impossible, for the non-existent—e.g. the son of a barren woman—cannot be the cause of anything; it cannot even be realised by the mind.

The doctrine received its final form in the commentaries of Śaiikara. The phenomenal world is real so long as the unity of the ātman is not realised, just as the creations of a dream are thought to be real till the dreamer awakes. Just as a magician (māyāvin) causes a phantom, having no existence apart from him, to issue from his body, so the ātman creates a universe which is a mere mirage and in no way affects the self. It is through māyā that plurality is perceived where there is really only the ātman. Multiplicity is only a matter of name and form, which are the creations of ignorance, being neither the ātman nor different from it, through the power of illusion (māyāśakti). The Highest One manifests himself in various ways by avidyā as a magician assumes various forms by his wiles.

Without going further into this intricate philosophy, I would note that the doctrine of māyā, as propounded by Śaṅkara, still forms one of the main tenets of his Advaitist school. Further details will be found in the article “Māyā,” by J. Allan, in Hastings’ Enc. Rel. Eth., vol. viii, pp. 503-505, to which I am indebted for part of the above. Apart from the references given here, see also the bibliography added by R. Garbe, at the end of his article “Vedānta,” ditto, vol. xii, p. 598.— n.m.p.