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THE STEELY BARB The Vedāntic doctrinc, as systematized and expounded by Šankara, stiesses a concept which is rather puzzling, namely that of māyā."' Māyā denotes the unsubstantial, phenomenal character of the observed and manipulated world, as well as of the mind itself-the conscious and even subconscious stratifications and powers of the personality. It is a concept that holds a key position in Vedāntic thought and teaching, and, if misunderstood, may lead the pupil to the conclusion that the external world and his ego are devoid of all cality whatsoever, mere nonentities, "like the horns of a harc." This is a common error in the early stages of instruction, to correct which, by vivid example, is the purpose of numberless comical anecdotes told of the Indian adhikārins and their gurus.
The king of the present story, who became the pupil of the philosopher Sarkara, was a man of sound and realistic mind or 850 A.D.) whose commentaries on the basic orthodox Vedic scriptures stand as the supreme monument of the late period of Indian philosophy. The term Vedanta =Vedat anta end: "end of the Veda," i.e., the goal os terminal development of Vedic thought) is applied to the works and concepts of this late period of orthodox Hindu scholasticism (cf. infra, pp. 409-463).
11 Editor's note: Māyā, from the root mã, "to measure, to form, to buid." denotes, in the first place, the power of a god or demon to produce illusory effects, to change form, and to appear under deceiving masks. Derived from this is the meaning, "magic," the production of an illusion by supernatural means; and then, simply, "the production of an illusion," for example in warfare, camouflage, etc. (cf. infra, p. 122). Māya in the Vedāntic philosophy is, specifically, "the illusion superimposed upon reality as an cffect of ignorance"; for example: ignorant of the nature of a rope seen lying on the road, one may perceive a snake. Sankara describes the entire visible cosmos as maya, an illusion superimposed upon true being by man's dcccitful senses and unilluminated mind (compare Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason; note also that to the modern physicist a minute unit of matter may appcar either as a particle or as a wave of energy, according to the instrument with which it is observed). Cf. Heinrich Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, The Bollingen Series VI, New York, 1946, index, under “Māyā."
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