Key of Knowledge

SR No.: 006702
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1919
Total Pages: 1204
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
If we are not blinded by any pre-formed convictions on the subject, we shall not fail to perceive that the doctrine that Brahman is the only existence and all else an illusion, or maya, to use a technical term of the Vedanta philosophy, is a self-contradictory one from the very outset; since we are given the duality of Brahman and mâyâ to start with. It is permissible to ask whether this mâyâ be a thing which actually exists, or not? No other alternative is possible, since nothing can actually exist and not exist at the same time. Now, if we say that it is an actuality of existence, there is an end to our monistic aspiration at once ; but, if it be urged, on the contrary, that it is not endowed with existence, then it is impossible that that which has no existence whatsoever should ever be perceived. This is the dilemma from which Vedanta has never been able to extricate itself, except to its own satisfaction.
The "hama aust” doctrine, similarly, is a stumbling block in the way of truth, and has caused as great mischief as the tenets of materialism pure and simple. With 'him ' alone in existence, it is inevitable that the world should be reduced to a simple dream, with 'him' as the Dreamer, and all other living beings as phantoms of imagination. Accordingly, the soul is not the Reality, but the reflection of Reality, and the summum bonum is either the destruction of the reflection, or the merging in ‘him,' which also involves the annihilation of the individual.' What sort of consolation is the soul to derive from the idea of annihilation which stares it in the face, it is difficult to imagine; but it is curious that it has never occurred to the propounders