31. Maya and Vidya, illusion and wisdom, are both the mighty potentialities of the Lord. By the one He partially conceals His true nature and manifests Himself as Jiva; and then by the other which removes the veil of illusion, He realises Himself. Properly speaking, Vidya, the light of wisdom, constitutes His essential nature; but it is spoken of as coming into existence because, when the curtain of Maya is removed, the inherent light of Atman shines in full in the mind of those from whose vision it has hitherto been obscured, just as the sun is said to have his full light restored to him when the shadow that has eclipsed him from our view has been removed.

32. What is this Maya or Avidya, which like a shadow eclipses the Omniscient Self? Does it really exist or not? The Advaitin answers as follows: In common parlance Maya is a name given to a phenomenon which cannot be accounted for by any known laws of nature, and which cannot be said either to exist or not to exist. The phenomenon produced by the magician's will cannot be said to exist, because it soon disappears and the magician himself knows that it is an illusion. Neither can it be said not to exist at all, because we are conscious of the thing, though only for a time; and we are never conscious of a thing which

is altogether non-existent, such as a man's horn. Of a similar character is the phenomenon called the universe which is imagined to be distinct from Atman. It is like the silver for which the mother-of-pearl is mistaken. Here it is Atman who, owing to the illusion obscuring the mind of the perceiver, puts on all the forms which we call external objects. Like all other illusions it disappears by knowledge. Enlightened sages as well as the Sruti bear testimony to the fact that, on the dawn of knowledge of the true Self, Maya disappears altogether. It is in this sense,--in the sense that it disappears in the light of right knowledge--that the external universe is spoken of as unreal, as mithya, as opposed to the self-existent and self-luminous Atman who never ceases to exist and shine.

33. He who practises Yoga, restraining the mind from all external objects and fixing it on the indwelling Atman, the True Divine Self, gradually overcomes the distracting tendencies of manas. When manas dwells constantly on the Atman, it tends to become pure and co-extensive with Him. This process attains consummation when manas, becoming entirely atrophied as to the external universe, resumes its real form as Atman, and there exists no longer that parti-coloured organ by which to perceive the external world in all its variety,--no longer that power of illusion which has given

rise to the innumerable phenomena of the external universe. He who has attained to this condition has become a Jivanmukta, has been liberated from samsara while still alive in the body.