This page has not been fully proofread.

xl
 
two ideas again and again, so that we may make
clear what we shall proceed to say. It does not
seem always quite clear to the mind of Dr
Thibaut that with Sankara-Maya, avidya (ig-
norance), prakriti, avyakta, âkâsa, &c., are all
synonymous terms. Sankara states this express-
ly in his bhashya on i, 4, 3.
"अविद्यात्मिका हि सा
अव्यक्तशब्द निर्देश्या
 
बीजशक्ति:
 
... तदेतदव्यंक्त क्वचि
 
दाकाशशब्दनिर्दिष्टं क्वचिदक्षरशब्दोदितं क्वचिन्मायेति सूचितं
"That causal potentiality (of the world) is of the
nature of ignorance (nescience); it is denoted
by the term undeveloped ... this undeveloped
(principle) is in some places denoted by the term
Akasa...in some places it is denoted by the
term Akshara...in some places it is spoken of as
Maya". Dr Thibaut makes also another mis-
take when he says "Maya constitutes the upâ-
dâna, the material cause of the world". This
is no doubt right from the purely Vyavaharic
stand-point, but not from the ultimate and
correct point of view. For, to Sankara, Brahman
is the only ultimate and absolute reality which,
when known, stultifies the rest. So, ultimately,
Brahman must be the upâdâna or material cause
of both the Non-manifested (or undeveloped)
 
....
 
""