|
Origin of Mysticism
by Anwar Shaikh |
MYSTICISM
| Man is a microcosm - the tiny replica of
the universe, whose wonders seldom fail to surprise, stimulate and even
stupefy. Of course, observation of the universal phenomenon is educating
and liberating but its vastness can be equally bewildering, bamboozling
and, baffling. Thus, direct observation of the cosmos may not offer a
glimpse of the Reality that lurks behind it. The light approach,
therefore, is to look into one's self - the microcosm. This is the message
and technique of Mysticism, the personal quest for the Truth.
A lot has been said about the origins of
Mysticism. Greece and Iran claim to be its fountain but when we delve into
it deeper, we can see that its roots lie in India. The article captioned
as "Origin of Mysticism" should provide a glory of India. It is
simply because it shows that search for the truth began in this land. |
ORIGIN OF MYSTICISM
Mysticism or the quest for the hidden
truth that pervades the fabric of nature, is aroused by the mysterious
projection of the universe. It is a labyrinth where lovers are lost and the real
pleasure of existence lies in search for the beloved, which grows deeper and
more interesting with rising hope and intensified desire.
As stated previously, it is alvvays for the lover to
look for the beloved and do all the wooing. When a beloved becomes a wooer, he
or she loses the status of the beloved. The true zest of love lies in the search
which multiplies with the degree of sincerity, sobriety and strain involved in
the exploration. Those who have had an experience of true love, know the value
of sighs, sorrows and supplications suffused with selflessness, no matter how
suffocating, suppressing and stifling the experience.
In the world of mysticism, it is the language of love
that prevails, irrespective of, whether we indulge in the Indian Christian or
Islamic mysticism. It is poetic in nature and packed with an emotional appeal
bursting with desire, which appears erotic and demanding, yet in reality, it is
pure and perfect carrying the pomp and prestige of ardent love which is
ingenious, ingenuous and irrepressible. When we apply this list to the origin of
mysticism, India stands out as the true home of mysticism because in the vedas,
the Indian scriptures, it is man who woos God being inspired by the fear,
reverence and wonder of nature. The other religions such as Judaism,
Christianity and Islam have exactly the opposite approach. In these faiths, it
is God who contacts man. An Indian mystic believes that the natural phenomenon
i.e. the world of appearance is a veil between the Reality and man, the seeker,
who must initiate a probe for Brahmin, the Reality, and he can trace Him through
acquired and intuitive knowledge only. On the contrary, the Semitic religions
hold that it is God who reveals Himself to man because He wants to be worshipped
and desires to guide man; people who believe in Him are guided and saved but the
unbelievers are thrown into hell. This philosophy clearly shows that:
a. Relationship between God and man is not that of love
because He forces himself on man through revelation.
b. Man is not a lover but a slave who is required by
divine command to obey and worship the Almighty.
c. The fact that God reveals Himself and does not
observe a veil cheapens Himself and thus divests Himself of the adoration that
true love deserves.
d. Again, as God destroys those who do not worship
Him, the entire purpose of revelation and creation is the glorification of
God, and man is just a pawn in the phenomenal game.
1. Exodus 3:4 clearly states about Moses that an angel of
God appeared before him from a burning bush. It was an act of God's revelation,
and He wanted to impress man (Moses) with His Divine power. Therefore, though
the bush burnt, it was not consumed.
Exodus 4: 10-14 narrates yet another episode which
states that Moses was reluctant to carry the burden of prophethood owing to not
being eloquent because of defective speech. God argues with him ta accept the
responsibility as His prophet: "Now, therefore go, and I will be with thy
mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say." But when Moses still dithers,
he does so at the risk of kindling God's wrath!
2. Though there is no mention of Trinity in the New
Testament, this happens to be the basic belief of the Christians. Most
Christians believe in Jesus not as God, the Son, but as God incarnate, meaning
that he was God in the form of man.
The mere fact of his birth, growing and preaching
constitutes an act of revelation. The desire of Jesus to be achnowledged as God
was so strong that he was crucified on the charge of blasphemy though the
faithful put on it an entirely different interpretation, which seeks to portray
it as an act of salvation for the human race.
Jesus wanted to be loved by mankind: like Yahwe, the
Jewish God, he appears as a jealous God because he does not 1ike the idea of
people loving anybody else including one's father, mother, sons and daughters
(Matt. 10: 37). In fact he goes even further, and demands that one must prove
one's love for him by hating one's father, mother, wife, children, brothers,
sisters and even one's life (Luke 14: 26).
It is rather strange: love is a natural trait and
function of the lover, if he/she does not show an intense desire for the beloved
voluntarily, one can assume with certainty that there is no spark of affection.
Of course; it is unnatural, and even vulgar, to demand to be treated as a
beloved along with the compliments that a true love deserves. Once God has
revealed Himself, He has lost the status of a beloved. In fact, revelation is an
act of a beloved chasing the "lover." I need not say what people think
of such a beloved.
3. Islam also advocates the same divine approach, which
clearly shows that God imposes Himself on man through revelation. Page 640 of
the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1971, describes an event in the life of the
Prophet Muhammad, which has not been challenged by anyone in the Muslim world.
It states that, according to Muhammad, the Word or God was revealed to him by
the Archangel Gabriel. This luminous figure caught him by the throat and
commanded him to repeat the sacred words but he tried to flee. Muhammad
suspected the genuineness of his message and was afraid that the revelation
resembled the claims of the visionary poets of his time who frequented the
streets of Mecca with their pretence of being divinely illuminated.
However, this episode is more authoritatively stated on
page 97 of the Hadith: Sahih Muslim (vol. one):
There came to him (Muhammad) the angel and said:
Recite, to which he replied: I am not lettered. He took hold of me (the apostle
said) and pressed me, till I was hard-pressed; thereafter, he let me off and
said: Recite, to which I replied: I am not lettered. He took hold of me and
pressed me for the third time, till I was hard pressed and then let me go and
said: Recite in the name of your Lord who created you from a clot of blood.
Recite. And your most bountiful Lord is He who taught the use of pen - taught
what you knew not. Then the Prophet returned therewith, his heart was trembling,
and he went to Khadaija and said: Wrap me up, wrap me up. So they wrapped him
till the fear had left him.
This is an extraordinary event: God sends the archangel
who uses violence on a human to act as his prophet for conveying His message to
the people so that they should supplicate and prostrate before Him. Allah, like
the Jewish and Christian Gods, not only wants the obedience of people but
desperately desires to be worshipped. Though He repeatedly calls Himself kind
and merciful, His extravagant threats of revenge, retribution and retaliation
render His promises of care, clemency and compassion rather fragile. He always
seems angry, threatening and even reviling the unbelievers. And when He is not
indulging in the expression of fury, He seems to be bribing the faithful with
the glorious comforts of paradise and the appetising sexual bounties of the most
beautiful virgins who dwell here.
One an easily see that this approach is divorced from
the basic concept of mysticism.
4. Though the Vedas are considered as the Holy
Scriptures of the Hindus, I am reluctant to call them as such. To my mind, they
are the sacred books of India and form an integral part of the cultural heritage
of people of the Indian descent irrespective of their faith.
There are four Vedas, the oldest being the RgVeda,
which also happens to be the root of the Vedic religion leading to its latest
form known as Hinduism. The Veda is considered eternal. It is not subject to
revelation; all god or gods had to do was to promote the intuition of the pious
and gifted men known as Rishi or seers who were able to see the eternal truth
directly without the help of any medium including sense perception. They
expressed this truth in a human language called Sanskrit.
This is the claim of the Hindu faithful, and one may be
willing to admire it without acknowledging its divine origin or supernatural
element. Since there is a repeated mention of the Eternal Law in the Rg. Veda,
one comes to the conclusion that the Vedic seers were deeply interested in the
natural phenomena, and thought of the universe as an organised whole. Not only
the SAT or the systematic cosmos was governed by order and truth called RTA but
man himself was an inlegral part of the universe which was likely to suffer
chaos (ASAT) through the interference of the demoniac powers or antigods (ASURAS).
Man had thus an obligation to make a contribution towards the maintenance of the
world, and he could do so by performing sacrifices and offering gods SOMA drink.
The purpose of sacrifices, Soma and many complex rituals was to secure the
propitiation of the hidden forces of nature, which influenced the quality of
human life through their effect and intensity. As humans and animals have shapes
and attributes which give them power to act and be nice or nasty, these forces
of nature which had the ability to peel and heel, sadden and gladden and elevate
and devastate, must also possess certain forms and characteristics. So, they
gave these natural forces particular shapes usually human and sometimes animalic
such as elephant, bull and monkey. One should also applaud the vision of the
Vedic man who knew that the cosmic order is hierarchical. So, they stratified
these forces of nature, creating gods and goddesses of various ranks having
different powers and prestige. The greatest of them was Dyasuh-Pitar, Heavenly
Father or the sky. Then there were Indra, the god of Indu or rain and dew, Agni,
the god of fire, Surya, the Sun, Usha the goddess of the dawn, and many more. So
these hidden forces ascended the human mind with mystical attributes and powers.
One ought to remember that these forces are part of the
universe which is mysterious and arouses fear in man's heart. Thus, he seeks
protection against this natural consternation through a set of rituals,
supplications and sacrifices, which eventually emerge as a religion; it seeks to
protect the human mind from fear of the cosmic vastness, mystery and uncertainty
the same way as the ozone layer shields the earth from the lethal effects of the
sun's ultraviolet rays. Because of its survival value, religion comes to be
associated with man's instinct and almost all his actions become reflexive in
relation to the next world and he usually defies reason to protect the faith,
which is, in fact, a form of make-believe; he does not want to be shaken out of
his daydreaming to face the reality of life which is harsh, hazardous and even
horrendous, though capable of moulding into hilarity, happiness and even a halo,
but it requires a lot of effort, which he is reluctant to put in. Why? It is
because religion offers him the earth just for having faith in a certain guru,
prophet or messiah. Why should he suffer pain for what he call get gratis?
Since the Veda is inspired by the mystical fear of the
universe seeking peace of mind through appeasing the forces of nature including
the supreme God, it represents man's spontaneous desire, and not dictated by a
super-being. to mount a search for the hidden truth through meditation and
rituals. This is the reason that throughout the hymns of the Rg. Veda, one
cannot trace a single stanza where a god tells man to supplicate him, bow, bend
or prostrate before him, worship him. Whatever rituals or forms or worship man
adopts, he does so of his own free will, without any divine coercion, whatever.
The Veda, thus, represents man's natural curiosity to find the Reality with a
view to becoming a part of it. Of course, this situation changes with the
emergence of the Orthodox Hinduism because Lord Krishna wants to be worshipped
by his devotees but I am concerned here with Vedism though Hinduism still
preserves some of its original traits.
Since the Vedic quest for reality is initiated by man
of his own free will, it gives him the status of a lover and bestows on God the
honour of being the beloved, seeking union with Him. And this has been the
fundamental principle of mysticism since inception of civilisation. On the
contrary, the approach of the Semitic religions, as already described, is
entirely the opposite: it is God who threatens man with hell or coaxes him with
the offer of paradise to seek Him and thus loses the status of a beloved which
constitutes the core of mysticism. This is the reason that the Biblical and
Koranic messages commence wilh a command such as "say..," that is, God
orders a man called "prophet," in a vision or through an angel to say
this or that to the people as the Will of God. Thus, their approach is
revelatory because God comes to man so that he should love and obey Him; it
disqualifies Him as the beloved, the object of search. Therefore, it is only
Hinduism which rises as the source of mysticism whereby it is man who seeks God
voluntarily.
Yet another reason why mysticism cannot form part of
Judaism, Christianity or Islam is the fact that these religions believe in a
creator God, whose relationship with man is that of his Maker. Therefore, man is
nothing but God's servant or slave, whose destiny it is to cry, creep and crawl
before Him as a worshipper, begging His mercy.
Again, the Semitic religion such as Islam declares that
the ultimate goal of man is to enter paradise to enjoy physical delights such as
beautiful surroundings, delicious food, wine and women. Similarly, Judaism and
Christianity have their ideas of salvation; they treat man as God's creature,
dependent on His grace forever. It is only the Vedic attitude incorporated by
Hinduism, which seeks union with God.
Before I narrate the basic points of mysticism, which
are an integral part of Hinduism, I ought to say a few words about the
composition of the Vedas:
Though Western scholars agree to accord the Vedas an
antiquity stretching back to 1500 B.C., it is somewhat a begrudging assessment,
and emanates from the fact that the Hindu culture has lost its dominant aspect
over the last 1000 years. The antiquity of the Vedas can be stretched back
another thousand years, if not more.
Besides the Rg. Veda, which is the original work, there
are other three volumes known as Yajur, Sama and Atharva. The Rg. Veda was
composed in the Punjab where Sanskrit was developed as the sacred language of
the Vedas as well as the vehicle of the literary expression. It is in Sanskrit
that the roots and shoots of such languages as Greek, Latin, Kelt, Tuton and
Slovonian lie. Even the deities of these lands their myths, religious beliefs
and practices have a good deal in common with the Vedic traditions of thought
and action.
This point is so significant that not only comparative
religious but also cultural history of the world, and especially the West,
cannot be understood without them. Though there is a host of evidence to show
that Sanskrit has a precedence over the classical languages of the West, such as
Greek and Latin, the western scholars do not acknowledge it as the mother of
these tongues, and claim that Sanskrit was a sister of the language they term as
the ''Indo-European." It is strange that Sanskrit is as live and kicking
even today as it ever was, but there is no trace of the Indo-European. The same
remarks apply to the original homeland of the Aryans who developed the Sanskrit
language. The Rg. Veda does not mention a word about the foreign origin of the
Aryans but repeatedly narrates the glory of the Punjab, their true home. When we
consider that it is the Punjab that has the honour to populate most of the
Indian sub-continent and to bless these provinces with its Vedic culture, it is
not difficult to imagine that the Europeans emigrated from those parts of Asia,
once called the Punjab, and not the Russian Steppe.
Mysticism as depicted by the Rg. Veda, unmistakably
shows the following features:
1. Mysticism is not a revealed religion but inspired by
the mysterious nature of the universe. This fact is described in hymn CXXXIX of
creation:
This hymn clearly states that originally there was
neither being nor nonbeing; nor air, nor sky .. There was total darkness, and
this All was concealed in chaos.
There was only a void and formlessness, and it was the
great power of Warmth which led to the birth of unit (i.e. primitive order).
The existent comes out of the non existent, and this is
the relationship between being and non being, and was motivated by Desire.
There were mighty forces and their action on "the
energy up yonder" which brought order to chaos and gave it form.
One ought to realise that the sage who composed this
hymn starts it with speculative questions: what was air and sky covered in? What
gave shelter, and was water there and was it unfathomed?
Considering that this hymn was written 1500 - 2500
B.C., it is marvellous to be scientific in all proportions: it clearly states:
a. All was covered in darkness, that is, entire natural
phenomenon is of the same origin, hence the principle of monism;
b. the second stunning corollary of the speculative
hymn is that existence comes out of nothingness;
c. the third point is that existence is brought about
by the action of natural forces on matter i.e. "the energy beyond up
yonder;"
d. in the beginning, there is chaos, which is turned
into the natural phenomenon that presents order, and
e. behind all this was the great power of warmth,
which one may interpret as heat.
However, the kernel of this discussion is that the sage
does not pretend that what he says is the revealed message; it is inspired by
the wonder and mystery of this universe, and as in the beginning of the hymn, he
remains equally astonished in the end:
".. who knows then whence it (the universe) came
into being?
He the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it
all or did not form it, whose eye controls this cosmos in the loftiest heaven,
he truly knows it, or perhaps he knows not."
2. It is man's instinctive search for the truth, hidden
behind the universe, which has been incorporated by Hinduism in its original
philosophy. This Indian religion propounds that behind the natural phenomenon,
is a principle which is uncreated, eternal, infinite, transcendent and
all-embracing. It comprises both being and non-being. This is the sole reality
which is not only the ultimate cause and source of all existence but also its
final goal. This reality is called Brahman; He is the all, that is, the occult
and the visible, over and under; He is not the creator but causes the universe
and all that is in it to emanate from Himself.
a. Thus Brahman is in all things and is the self (Atman)
of all living things. Brahman who creates everything out of Himself, also is
the preserver, transformer and absorber of everything.
b. The fact that the First Principle, Brahman or God
is in everything and everything comes out of Him, gave birth to the famous
Indian philosophy described as the "One in All, and All in One."
which the Greeks, the Jews and the Arabs adopted as: "Unity in diversity
and diversity in unity." This is monism which is considered as the
universal principle of mysticism.
3. As everything comes out of God and goes back into Him
in alternate cycles of evolution and devolution, man's true goal is to seek
union with God. This has also become a major doctrine of mysticism.
Communion with God is also an Indian innovation of a
later date which emerged with the Bhagavad Gita, requiring man to love and
worship God and seek nearness of Him. Though this has also become an integral
part of mysticism, it is not compatible with the Vedic spirit, which happens to
be union with God i.e. becoming a part of Him.
4. The hymn XCI of book 10, known as Purusasukta is a
further statement of the fact that the world is monistic in nature and
emphasises that the cosmos is not a machine but an organism. If it were not so,
man and matter could not form a part of God to make the universe various aspects
of the Reality.
Everything on the earth, the sky, the moon, the sun,
and even the gods such as Indra, Agni, and Vayu, came into being from the
sacrifice of a person called Purusa, having a thousand heads, a thousand eyes
and thousand feet.
Delightful though it is to note that this hymn is based
on a scientific observation of the universe which diagnoses the oneness of
existence, thus enabling man to reach the highest possible point of development,
that is, to become a part of Godhead through union with the suprerne, deplorable
it equally is because it lays down the foundation of Caste System, treating
certain people such as Brahmin and Ksatriya as superior just by virtue of birth,
and other such as Vaisya and Sudra as inferior, and even unclean, just by
nativity.
Thuugh the Hindus have treated Samsara or
transmigration of souls through Caste System as the vehicle of salvation i.e.
the union of man with God, one can ignore it completeJy; the oneness of the
universe is a sufficiently strong medium to unite man with God.
5. Another major point of the Vedic mysticism is the
fact that though God is man's superior, the relationship between the two is not
that of a master and a slave. The hymn LXXXIX known as Visvadevas clearly
states:
"The friendship of the Gods have we devoutly
sought."
This Vedic approach is taken much further in verses 3 to 6
of hymn LXXXVIII, dedicated to VARUNA. It says that the worshipper has lost the
old favour that he once had of the god, yet he is bold enough to remind the
deity:
"What hath become of those our ancient friendships,
which without ... we walked together."
The relationship between God and man is that of
friendship. Another point this hymn stresses is that man originally belonged to
the realm of God, and has been separated from Him. It is this doctrine that
appears as the focus of metempsychosis in the systems of Pythagoras, Plato
Gnosticism, and Manechaeism.
6. Meditation through recitation of a particular word
which has the mystical power to reform man's inner vision for making his union
with God a possibility, is a peculiarity or the Vedic mysticism; to the Hindus
and Sikhs it is "Japp," which is called Dhikr in Islam; people of
other faiths have their own synonyms for this word, yet the basic principle is
essentially Vedic.
"Simply, ye Mighty Ones, I ask the Gods of that
wondrous oblation hallowed by the mystic word." (Hymn CXX - Asvins, Book
One).
Again, hymn CLXIV says:
"upon what syllable of holy praise - song, as I
were their highest heaven, the Gods repose them, who knows not this, what will
he do with praise - song? But they who know it will sit here assembled."
Originally, "Vasat" was the mystical word in
making an oblation to a god with fire. This word had to be used with the utmost
accuracy. otherwise, the priest was sure to suffer the most deadly consequences
of his error.
However, the greatest mystical word of the Hindus is
OM, which is not only sacred to them but also discloses the nature of mysticism
itself. It implies that as God is the self in everything, everything serves as
the divine symbol which represents His power, pomp and prestige. Of course, a
symbol is nothing in itself because its true significance lies in what it
represents or stands behind it. It is like a word which has a meaning, it is a
flower which has fragrance and it is a magnet which has hidden attractive power.
This fact is well illustrated by "OM" itself. It is a sanskrit word
composed of three sounds: a-u-m. The vowels a and u merge into one another to
become o. The mystical approach of Om represents several important articles of
the Hindu faith such as the three major Hindu gods, Brahma, Visnu and Siva, the
three Vedic scriptures, Rg. Yajur and Sama, the three worlds of earth,
atmosphere and heaven, and so on. In fact, Om represents the mystical essence of
the entire universe. This word is frequently used in the Buddhist and Jaina
rituals as well as in the practice of yoga and the related techniques of
auditory meditation.
The mystical representation by words and syllables is
also found in the Koran, the Islamic scripture. It commences with the letters
Alif, Lam, Mem which are supposed to have a mystical meaning. "Allah-Hoo"
is as significant a word in Islam as Om is in Hinduism. Its frequent recitation
or Dhikr is held as the key to salvation, and it is for this reason that it is
considered: "Isme-Azam."
This symbolic approach of mysticism is at the root of
arts and literature. For example, the written notes are not music but a set of
musical cues for the creation of the tones to be produced by the various
instruments. Similarly the medium of literature is words but not as abstract
entities conceived in the mind but words as spoken or written.
The final stage in the tradition of the Veda is
represented by what is called Vedanta i.e. conclusion of the Veda. This
tradition is explained by a vast body of prose and verse rich in speculative
elaborations. It is contained in the Upanishad and dates back to 800 B.C. or
earlier. This is the fountain of the later Indian philosophy, which itself
originated from the Rg. Veda.
Mystical speculation is the special concern of the
Upanishads which though gave India a philosophical edge over the rest of
mankind, arrested its secular march by creating an observation with the
world-to-come and reducing man's role in making this life pleasant, prestigious
and praiseworthy. The Hindu concern with the purification of self as a
preparation for the other worldliness has imposed a heavy penalty on the Indian
way of life.
The Indian wisdom, as it is quite clear from the study
of these Upanishads, directed itself with complete devotion, dedication and a
sacred sense of duty to the path of Reality; it developed:
a. the concept of a single, supreme being, and
b. emphasised that man needs knowledge to discover
the Supreme Being and to be able to unite with Him.
c. Though monism had always been the message of the
Vedas, through discussion, demonstration and dissemination, the Hindu seers
made it a public knowledge that Brahman and self, orGod and soul are one in
essence. Since everything has a self which is an extension of God, the
diversity of forms, constituting this universe, represents a single unity
which gave birth to the universal principle: "One in all and all in
One."
To a Hindu mystic, reality is one. The manifoldness of
forms is iust an appearance:
"There is on earthy no diversity. He gets death
after death, who perceives here seeming diversity. As a unity only is it to be
looked upon - This indemonstrable, endurable Being."
(Brih. 4.4.19-20)
Again Chand. 7.26.2. states:
" The seer sees not death, Nor sickness, nor any
distress. The seer sees only the All, Obtains the All entirely."
The Indian philosophy of monism, that is, one in all and
all in one, surely holds up the dignity of man. It attaches a negative value to
worship or the acts of sacrifice:
"This that people say "Worship this god!
Worship that god."
"And he himself is all the gods" (Brih.
1.4.6)
so whoever worships another divinity (than his self),
He is one and I another, "is not aware of the truth
"An individual man may become Brahma (God) by knowing
himself to be such" (Brih. 1.4.15)
As a matter of interest, I should also mention that
Upanishads represent the opposite points of view as well, and thus show the
independence and originality of the Indian thinking:
1. To a student of Upanishad, knowledge does not mean
"much learning" but the comprehension of the cosmic truth. It is the
sole vehicle of discovering the Reality and is directly opposed to the Semitc
device of revelation which means that God approaches man to reveal Himself.
In fact, there exists in Upanishads the doctrine or
Prasada or Grace, found in Katha 2.20 as well as SVet 3.20. It means that man
needs God's grace to achieve salvation or immortality. Svet 1.6. states:
"In this Brahma - wheel (universe) the soul
flutters about, thinking that itself and the Actuator (God) are different,
when favoured by Him, it (soul) attains immortality."
Katha 2.23 (= Mund 3.2.3) goes even fulther to negate the
doctrine of knowledge and holds out the doctrine of election:
"This soul is not to be obtained by instructions,
not by intellect, nor by much learning.
He is to be obtained only by the One whom He chooses.
To such a one that Soul reveals his own person."
It is rather stunning that the concepts of Grace and
Election which were to form the basic doctrines of Christianity and Islam
centuries later, were developed in India as part of the mystical system.
Having said that I should emphasise that the doctrine
of knowledge remains the true mystical Vedic approach. Though I have already
propounded it in my own way, I may now explain it as Shankra, the celebrated
Indian philosopher did, centuries earlier:
The concept of Maya is to be found in the Rg. Veda
6.47.18, where it means ''supernatural powers or artifices" which imply the
antithesis of reality; this is the origin of the vedic doctrine of Maya: it
means that the real Brahma or God is the undifferenced unity but the natural
phenomena which appear as self-subsistent entities, are unreal and result from a
person's own igrorance or Avidya which projects the things or one's own sense as
the ultimate being of the world. However, this ignorance can be remedied through
knowledge. This is what gave birth to the celebrated Indian theory of Cosmic
illusion which served as the basis of the Platonic theory of Forms and an
essential pillar of the international mysticism.
Svet 4. 9-10 describes this fact which became the Maya
doctrine of the Upanishads:
"This whole world the illusion-maker projects out
of this
(Brahma). And in it by illusion the other is confined.
Now one should know that Nature is illusion.
And that the Mighty Lord is the illusion-maker."
Shankra stated the theory of Maya much more forcefully. He
held the world does not exist of itself but is derived from Brahman (God) and
depends on Him for its existence. Therefore, it is not an illusion but less
real. It is a Maya, a phenomenal appearance, partly created by our own
imagination; it expresses our inability to see the world without being an
expression of cause and change. It shows man's innate limitation which is termed
as Avidya or ignorance. Because of this Maya, the intellect assumes that it
knows the real. The world is only one Being but through Maya (Avidya) appears as
multiplicity of forms and a process of flux. Change is just a name for
superficial fluctuation of forms. Behind this Maya, forms and vicissitudes, lies
the Reality that can be reached not by sensation but through insight gained by
knowledge. This ultimate Reality is Brahman (God).
Since God is in all, the Self or Atman (soul) or
everything is a part of God. It is shared by us and everything else; the
undivided Self of things, which happens to be omnipresent, is identical with
Brahman, who is neuter and above all human attributes, desire and ends.
Shankra, a great mystic, set the goal of mystiism. He
believed that destination of philosophy is to discover the secret behind the
universe, and the ultimate goal of every seeker is to lose himself into this
secret. This is what Moslems call "Fana-Fe-Allah" and other remember
it as union with God. This is the stage of existence where there is no misery,
no death. It is a state ot Ananda, the blissful peace but it cannot be achieved
unless a man not only renounces the world but also himself.
It is basically the Indian Mysticism which has been
practised in various forms throughout the world as:
Mysticism is the product of India though this fact has not
been acknowledged fully owing to ignorance and bigotry. The above mentioned
forms of mysticism are likely to establish their origin and also demonstrate
that being a search for the hidden truth, mysticism is man's true religion.
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