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resembles dreams in certain respects. "An object will not lose its real nature and acquire that of another, merely because it resembles that other in certain respects." This manifold world is taken to be real as long as the essential unity of the Jiva with Brahman is not realized. As long as this unity with Brahman, the supporting ground of all phenomena is not realized, the world with all its difference is perfectly real. It is only from the absolute stand point when right knowledge is attained that the Advaita Vedanta declares the world to be unreal.
Criticism of Mayavada
Sankara's doctrine of Maya, is unfortunately, misunderstood and misrepresented by many thinkers. For certain thinkers the word Māyā connotes nothing but the utter illusoriness of the world. This doctrine has been the target of much adverse criticism, even by the cminent philosophers, all down the ages, from Bhaskara to Sri Aurobindo. Even great Jain thinkers, like Vidyanandi and others criticise the Mayavada. Bhaskaracārya, is the first thinker to criticise Māyāvāda, 'who was either contemporary of Sankara or flourished just after his death. Bhaskara thinks that Mayavada is due to the influence of Mahayana Buddhism67 and it is an unwarranted hypothesis. Quoting a verse from Pudmapurana, he states that, Sankara's Mayāvāda is asat 'Sastra' and it is hidden Buddhism with its roots cut assunder.s While criticising the doctrine of Maya Bhaskara argues, that so called Maya or Avidya, which projects the sensible world of plurality and practical life, cannot be said to be indescribable. It is self-contradictory to hold that Maya or Avidya is both existent and non existent. If it is mere negation, it cannot cause bondage. It must he positive entity, since it causes bondage. So, it must exist along with Brahman. This is dualism. If it is beginningless, it must be endless. Then, there can be no liberation, because Advaitins claim that without destruction of Avidya no liberation is possible. If the knowledge of duality or difference is false, the knowledge of unity or identity, also must be false, because it is knowledge, knowledge of the world cannot be false, like the knowledge of dreams, since dreams are not absolutely false like hare's horns. So, doctrine of Maya is irrational concept.69
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Vidyanandi, a first rank thinker of Jainism who flourished in 9th Century A. D., argues, that, if Brahman is the only Reality and on acconut of Maya or Avidya, this apparent world exist, then it is impossible to prove, either existence of Maya or Mithyatra (illusory nature) of the world
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