A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c7.s2.16

c7.s2.16

23. We now come to discuss a problem, upon which there has been a great deal of difference of opinion among interpreters of Vedāntic philosophy, namely, problem of the sources of the doctrine of Māyā. There are, on the whole, three different theories which try to account for the doctrine of Māyā, as found in Śaṅkara and later writers, in three different ways: according to the first, the doctrine of Māyā is a mere fabrication of the fertile genuis of Śaṅkara; according to the second, the doctrine of Māyā as found in Śaṅkara is to be traced entirely to the influence of the Śūnyavāda of the Buddhists; according to the third, Śaṅkara's doctrine of Māyā is to be found already full-fledged in the Upanishads, of which he is merely an exponent. To say that the doctrine of Māyā is a fabrication of Śaṅkara is to deny outright the presence of its sources in the Upanishads. To say that it is the outcome of the nihilism of the Buddhists is to give, in addition, merely a negativistic, nihilistic interpretation to the philosophy of Śaṅkara. To say, again, that the doctrine of Māyā is to be