World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 805

there has to be assumed a universal diversifying factor or effectuating principle. This principle is called Māyā. It must be accepted, however illusory in its ultimate nature, as explanatory factor of all the appearances of the phenomenal world. An assumption of it is the only solution to the question which unavoidably arises as to how this nondual Reality is to be related to the complications of diverse becomings, pseudo realities in the form of innumerable appearances as multiple empirical or illusory entities. In other words, to solve the vexed problem of relation between appearance and Reality, One and many, Noumena and phenomena, this doctrine of Māyā is introduced by Sankara.
The concept of Māyā is not a fabrication of Sankara's mind as some critics think. The word Māyā is of very great antiquity and had been in considerable use in orthodox literature much before the times of Sankara. It is at least as old as Rgveda and it occurs number of times in Rgveda.13 It is said that 'Indra assumes many forms through mysterious powers. 14, It is also said that by overcoming the Māyā of the demons Indra won the Soma."15 It is also found in Atharvaveda, 16 earlier Upanişads, Bhagavadgitals and Yogavāsistha. In all these texts, this word is used primarily in the sense of mystical power, or cover, veil or ignorance. An indepth study of these scriptures reveals that Sankara's interpretation of this word is more faithful to the intended purpose of these scriptures than the views of anti-Sankaraites.
As in Rgveda and other ancient scriptures, so in Sankara's works too, 'Māyā' has been used in varied senses. At places, it is used in the sense of illusory appearances, it is also used to connote the mysterious power of the almighty creator and Lord of the world.20 It is through and by dint of this his indescribable power that the supreme Lord of all, assumes, unaffectedly, the creatorship of the entire universe. This power, says Sankara, has got to be posited, or
without it the highest Lord could not be conceived as creator, as he could not become active, if he were destitute of the potentiality of action'.21 This Māyā or causal potentiality has for its substratum or support the highest Lord and it is denoted by the term avyakta 22 It is this very ‘Māyā' of the supreme Lord which in the scriptures has some times been designated as 'akāśa' and some times as ākṣara' (indescribable).23 What has been called Prakrti'in the Sruti and Smrti is this 'Māyā' itself, and the names and forms which belong to the self of the omniscient Lord as it were and which constitute the seed
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