| Essence Of Hinduism |
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HINDU PHILOSOPHY |
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| The dramatist
belongs to a higher order of reality than his characters. From his standpoint the
characters are only ideal creations, but from the standpoint of the characters themselves
they are all real. Similarly, from the standpoint of God we and the world in which we live
may be only ideal, but among ourselves and relatively to one another we are terribly real.
The world is there external to our minds. But there is nothing external to the mind of
God. Our scriptures, no doubt, describe the world sometimes as a dream. But to whom is it a dream? A dream is no dream to the dreamer. It is a terrible reality to him. It is only to the awakened man that it is a dream. Similarly, it is not to the man of the world, but to the yogin in his samadhi, when he identifies himself with the changeless Reality, that the worl fades and vanishes. We are all of us in a world which is real to us, but we aspire to the attainment of a world which the Veda reveals to us and in which this will-o'-the-wisp of a world, with its deceits and lies, its mockeries and temptations, will not bewilder us any further. Therefore, the word Maya used by Hindu philosophers in this connection does not mean illusion. It rather means a mystery. Maya is the mysterious power by which God, while remaining changeless Himself, gives rise- to this changing phenomenal universe. That are why we sometimes say that Maya is the cause of the world and why we sometimes identify it with Prakrti. The subjective aspect of Maya is sometimes called Avidya it is the natural disability of the soul, which prevents it from apprehending God as He really is. |
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| About Hindu Philosophy |
