History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.80

v7.c95.80

When one has to emphasize what the Reality behind the world is in itself, one speaks of the Absolute brahman, but when one has to speak about the relation of the one Reality to the individual selves and the physical world one speaks of a personal God. When the Vedāntasūtra (II. 1. 14) states²⁴⁶³ that the world is non-different (*ananya*) from *brahman*, what is meant is not that the two are identical, but only this that the selves and the world are not entirely different from *brahman*. When it is said that *Mokṣa* results if one realizes *brahman*, there is no question of the destruction of the world but all that it comes to is that the false idea or outlook in that case is displaced or sublated by a true one. How the finite world arises from the Infinite is a mystery, for which Śaṅkarācārya employs the word 'Māyā'. But he is positive that till a person realizes the one Ātman all religious and worldly courses of life, real-unreal, go on unobstructed. The concept of Māyā as postulated by Śaṅkarācārya (on V. S. II. 1. 14 and other places) is one of the most misunderstood elements of Vedānta. Further, it should not be forgotten that a very large number of philosophically minded Hindus do not advocate the doctrine that the world is an illusion; all that is said by advaitins is that the world is not as real as the Absolute is. The passages quoted below from Śaṅkarācārya's *Bhāṣya* clarify his position, which is this. There is the physical world with its manifold distinctions, but it must rest on something else; that something is called the absolute *brahman*. The relation between the two is inexplicable and therefore it is spoken of as Māyā. In that way Śaṅkarācārya is agnostic, while other religious philosophers are not willing to admit the futility of theories or their helplessness to put forward a generally acceptable and reasonable theory of the relation of the universe and the Eternal Spirit behind it.