5.11: CONCEPT OF MAYA:

Maya is a concept of “nothingness”. It is unique to Hinduism. An absolute zero, a  darkness, a stage prior to creation, a complete ignorance, a concept where time,energy and matter all become to fuse as none. It is an ancient concept of black hole in the universe.

In the saiva tenets the maya is with the “jeevan”. It is part of the jeeva and corrupts the jeeva. The maya is one of the primordial malams. The maya is thus a part of the soul. It gets cleansed and to make the soul purer and nearer to the absolute.

In the adhvaitha schools the doctrine of maya has different connotations. Here the maya is “omnipresent and delude the whole universe”. The whole universe is thus in maya. This maya is like a dream of the paramathma. This universal dark force deludes the minds of the soul.

The upanisads are the best sources for the vedic thoughts. They are very close to siddhantha theories except some key areas like ontogeny, cosmology, idealism vs realism…etc. There are significant overlaps in their extents but on a certain ground siddhantha differs from vedantha in a true metaphysical contxt. The upanisads emphasise a “nothingness” in its core philosophy similar to the saiva tenets. The concept of maya and its early aspects are found in a tacit manner in the upanisads .

The purpose of cycling of the soul is emphasized in saiva doctrines whereas the cycling of the universe is emphasized in adhvaitha(vedhantha)

In advaitha  each cycling of the universe paraman manifests as the isvara and teaches the highest knowledge to the soul. This is called the sruthi. The sruthi (scriptures) are agamas. The vidya given by the smirithis do not remove the veil of maya.

In the saiva schools the isvara is eternal and only the soul cycles. The maya is personal and the siva can remove the maya from the soul with the help of agamas. The agamas are eternal and they are the ultimate knowledge pronounced by the sivam. Besides the soul (ontogeny) is in three state that is pathi-pasu-pasam(ontogenic triadism). The siddhantha is realist that is it accepts matter as real whereas the vadantha is idealist( that is it says the matter is only an idea.

Subrahmanya bharathi  denounces the maya concept of vedhantha in his poem                ( மாயையை பழித்தல்; ‘நிற்பதுவை... நடப்பதுவே... பறப்பதுவே....நீங்களெல்லாம் சொப்பனந்தானோ?)

Sankara accepts agamas as a source of knowledge and says without which the soul will be in avidya.  Similarly the saiva doctrines accept Vedas as general wisdom and agamas as systemic knowledge. This amount of reciprocation can be considered as the earliest  form of reproachment between the two schools- “Vedanta –siddhantha samarasam” (வேதாந்த-சித்தாந்த சமரசம்).

The vedhantha-siddhantha samarasam is an area to be furthered. In the modern context we know the findings of STEPHEN HAWKINGS and his theories on dark energies of the universe. This is closer to the Sankara’s universal maya theory. Similarly the evolutionary Darwinism and DNA studies come closer to siddhantha tradition. The throries on multiverse also are analogous to the siddhantha –vedha traditions of speculations.

Speculative knowledge will always end up in scientific explorations and becomes theory laden some times. But the speculation never ceases. If this speculative process ceases, then man becomes dogmatic. This dogmatism is indeed the maya in whatever way we define it.