CHAPTER VIII.

MAYA.

Eighth Stanza of the Hymn.

To the Atman who, deluded by Maya, sees, in jagrat or svapna, the universe in variety, as cause and effect, as master and servant, as teacher and disciple, as father and son, and so on to Him who is incarnate in the Teacher, to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South, to Him (Siva) be this bow!

What is Bondage, Liberation and Maya?

1. If, apart from the Light, no object exists, then how arises all the experience ending with initiation into the Supreme Truth?

2-3. Who is bound and liberated? Why is one bound? What may be the definition of Maya? Thus may an enquirer ask. With a view to answer these questions, and in order (that the disciple may) understand the matter with ease, what has been taught in the seven stanzas is again told in brief.

4. Repetition in word or sense can be no fault here (in this Sastra). Frequent

reiteration only shows how momentous the theme is.

The meaning of the eighth stanza may be explained as follows:--

All experience is a Fiction.

5-6. To imagine in Paramesvara, in the One Self-luminous Existence, the relation of cause and effect and other things of various sorts, is like imagining, the head of Rahu, empty space in akasa, 'my self,' the body of an idol, and so on,--as not referring to distinct realities.

Rahu and Ketu are, respectively, the head and the trunk of one Rakshasa's body severed into two; so that, when one speaks of the head of Rahu, we cannot suppose that the head exists distinct from Rahu. The two are, in fact, one. Similarly when Paramesvara is spoken of as the cause of the universe, we should not understand that the universe is distinct from Paramesvara. There is only one existence, namely, Paramesvara.

7. Isvara amuses Himself assuming, of His own accord, the forms of worshipper and the worshipped, of teacher and disciple, of master and servant, and so on.

8. He who is a son with reference to his father is himself the father with reference to his son; one alone, indeed, is imagined in various ways according to mere words.

9. Therefore, on investigating supreme truth, we find that the Light alone exists. False (mithya) indeed is all notion of difference in Atman, caused as it is by Maya.

The meaning of "mithya"

10. Falseness (mithyatva) consists in being nullified when right knowledge arises. Then, the master instructing the disciple and all else appear like a dream.

Truth taught through fiction.

11. The Vedanta, though in itself false may enable one to understand the Real Truth, like the idol of a God, or like a drawing, or like a reflection.

Maya nullified by knowledge.

12. All our mundane experience is a display of Maya. Like unto sushupti, Maya is nullified by knowledge of Atman.

Maya defined.