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VEDANTA (4) ADVAITA
365 constitutes the uniqueness of the things of experience and should naturally be found also in their cause, Māyā. They are neither something nor nothing, and are therefore termed mithya. They are not unreal as commonly assumed by the critics of the doctrine; only they are not ultimate. Or, in other words, their reality is relative and they may be regarded as appearances when contrasted with the higher reality of Brahman. In giving rise to such things, Māyā resembles avidya, the source of common illusions, and is therefore described as the principle of cosmic illusion. In this it differs from the prakṛti of the Sankhya-Yoga which is real in the full sense of the term.
(3) Isvara.-We described Māyā as the source of the physical universe. But this source, for reasons already assigned, being altogether dependent upon the cosmic sāksin, cannot act by itself. In strictness, therefore, the two elements should together be reckoned as giving rise to the world. Here we find another point of difference from the SankhyaYoga where prakṛti is supposed to be endowed with the spontaneity required for manifesting of itself the whole of the physical world. It is the cause of the world in this complex form or spirit together with Maya that is the Isvara of Advaita. Or as it is somewhat differently expressed, Maya is the potency (sakti) inherent in Isvara through which he manifests the objective world with all its diversity of names and forms. But he at the same time sees through the diversity, so that he never misses its underlying unity as we do. Though the universe as emerging from Isvara is not around but within him, the exercise of this potency gives rise to a sense of 'the other; and Maya may therefore be regarded as the principle of self-consciousness, or selfdetermination. It interpolates a distinction where really there is none. In this sense, Maya cannot be the source of the universe, but is a mere accessory to Isvara in bringing it into existence out of himself. For reasons similar to those adduced in explaining hing the parallel conception of avidyathe source of ordinary illusions, Maya or the principle of cosmic illusion is conceived as more than a negation of
See Samkara on VS. I. iv. 3.
