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The Fourth Lesson: The Vedanta System.1191
as the material cause of the world, just as in the Sankhya the Prakriti is so
regarded—but Maya is not regarded as a “something” as is Prakriti; for it
is merely a covering or shadow of Something. And yet the Advaitists do
not teach that the phenomenal life and universe is a “nothing” as do the
Buddhists. They regard it as an illusory appearance of an underlying reality,
which appearance is unreal, and yet real for all practical purposes, and which
must be so considered in sane reasoning and action. As Max Müller has
said concerning this point: “For all practical purposes, the Vedantist would
hold that the whole phenomenal world, both in its subjective and objective
character, should be accepted as real. It is as real as anything can be to the
ordinary mind; it is not mere emptiness, as the Buddhists maintain. And
thus the Vedanta philosophy leaves to every man a wide sphere of real
usefulness, and places him under a law as strict and binding as anything can
be in this transitory life.” And this may be understood when you consider that
even in the imagination or dream of Brahman there must be an element of
actuality. Samsara, is not absolutely fictitious, although illusory. Phenomena
are merely indicative of the illusory appearance of an underlying reality.
“Dreams are true, while they last,” says the poet. Therefore the phenomenal
universe may be considered as true, so long as the Truth is not known.
When Brahm awakes, the universe disappears—the souls know that they
are One. The Universe and the souls are not “absorbed” into Brahman—but
Brahman arouses itself, and the phenomenal appearance fades away as do
the dreams of the night, or the day-dreams of the waking hour.
The Advaita conception regards Brahman as the real cause of the universe,
because it all proceeds from him; and also as the operative cause, because
the processes of Maya (which are akin to those of the Prakriti of the Sankhya)
depend upon the proximity and existence of Brahman, inasmuch as Maya
has no energy of its own, but acts by the energy of Brahman reproduced
in Maya by induction, similar to the action of the magnetism of a magnet
inducing magnetic properties in the particles of steel. Thus Maya, although
inert of itself, becomes active by reason of its proximity to Brahman. The