A History of Sanskrit Literature c18.32

c18.32

The ultimate cause of all such false impressions is *avidyā* or innate ignorance, which this, like the other systems, simply postulates, but does not in any way seek to account for. It is this ignorance which prevents the soul from recognising that the empirical world is mere *māyā* or illusion. Thus to the Vedāntist the universe is like a mirage, which the soul under the influence of desire (*tṛishṇā* or "thirst") fancies it perceives, just as the panting hart sees before it sheets of water in the *fata morgana* (picturesquely called *mṛiga-tṛishṇā* or "deer-thirst" in Sanskrit). The illusion vanishes as if by magic, when the scales fall from the eyes, on the acquisition of true knowledge. Then the semblance of any distinction between the soul and God disappears, and salvation (*moksha*), the chief end of man, is attained.