Mayatattva: The Reality of Maya (A Collection of Essays on Maya)

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Maya, the indefinible, is believed to be the Cause of the world-appearance. It holds the clue to the creation of the universe and as it appears to us. The awareness of particularity that generated from the individual mind is also enrooted in Maya. But what is Maya? In his writings Paramhangsa Soham Swami has unravelled the enigma of Maya. Mayatattva is a collection of his essays on Maya.

Paramhangsa Soham Swami (1858-1918) was an Advaitin monk. Known as Shyamakanta Bandopadhyay in his pre-monastic life, he was famous across the Bengal Presidency in the last two decades of the 19th century for his unusual vocation - wrestling with tigers. At 41, abandoning wealth, family, and fame, he became an ascetic and realized the Truth of Self in Samadhi. In the last ten years of his life, he wrote copiously on Advaitavad or the philosophy of non-dualism.

Maya - the indefinable is the key to the mystery of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the cosmos. Whatever we see around us, women, men, children, trees, houses, stones, fields etc, the existence of everything is enrooted in Maya. Furthermore, my particular existence as a woman, a man, or a transgender, as Rama, Sita, Muhammad, or John is grounded in Maya. It is the mystery that conceals my reality and the reality of the world that i behold. Scientists in vain try to penetrate the mysterious fog of creation. Neither the most advanced instrument nor the most brilliant mind is capable of ripping apart this web of bewilderment. With scientific investigation confined to the world of matter, consciousness becomes incomprehensible. From the point of view of modern science, the universe consisting of celestial objects is beheld as unconscious and following the ancient materialists, modern scientists conclude that consciousness is a function of matter notwithstanding the intelligent design as the foundation of the cosmos of matter.

The ancient Indian philosophers while trying to discern the reality of the universe and the source and sequence of creation promulgated the atomic theory. According to the Vaisesika system, the world is composed of two categories of substances - the eternal and the transient. The eternal substances are ether or dark matter, air, fire, water, earth, time, space, soul, and mind. Dark matter, air, fire, water, and earth are the five basic constituents of physical elements or matter that give an object the specific qualities of sound, touch, colour, taste, and smell respectively. Dark matter or Vyom is imperceptible and all-pervasive and the other four constituents of matter comprise infinitesimal atoms or Paramanu that are indestructible and indivisible. particles of matter. Space and time, like Vyom, are imperceptible and all-pervasive. The mind is as small as an atom and it is indestructible. It is not all-pervading owing to its infinitely minute atomic size. However, it is eternal. Because of its atomic size, the mind, the source of the internal mechanism of knowledge, cannot experience more than one state at a time. The soul is all-pervading and the substratum of consciousness. The mind experiences the individual soul or the Jivatma. Creation occurs following the combination of the eternal substances. However, none of these substances can move or act on their own. The supreme soul or the Paramatma is the controller or creator of the world of matter and sentient beings. The creation action is following the unseen moral deserts or Adrista that arises following the action or Karma of a being.

The opponents of the Vaisesika philosophy pointed out that the combination of the atoms to create the world is untenable because without some action atoms cannot be combined. For example, without some action, threads cannot be joined to create a piece of cloth. By action, it is implied effort or endeavour of the soul or an impact such as the movement of the wind against the tree to shake it. The effort or endeavour of the soul is escible only when the mind is casioined with the soul.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages