The Doctrineof Maya

The Doctrine of Maya is the pivotal principle in the Advaita Philosophy — the final pronouncement of Indian speculation on the conception of Reality and Appearance. During the last thirty years a good deal has been written on the Vedanta, and naturally this doctrine has also been treated of, though only in passing and by the way. That it is richly supported in the later Vedanta is already an established fact, but a number of writers seem to conclude, rather hastily, that it is not the genuine product of the early speculation of the Upanisads, but has been later added to the original Vedanta by Sankara and his followers. Some critics believe that it is imported from Buddhism and receives hardly any countenance from the Upanisads. The point is still debated, and it is only with a view to contribute a little towards a clearer understanding on this problem that I undertook to examine the Upanisads as minutely and as fully as I could, always relying upon the original texts more than the many more or less slipshod translations which are to be found. Hitherto these treatises have.