The Religions Book

120

similar distinction was being
made at this time between
pragmatic and absolute truth.
For both Hindu and Buddhist
thought, this distinction
represented a necessary step
in bringing the fundamental
philosophical ideas of religion
together with actual practice.
During the first millennium,
religious practice had been moving
increasingly toward devotion to
various gods and goddesses (or,
in the case of Buddhism, different
bodhisattva images), each of
which was regarded as reflecting
a true aspect of reality. For both
Hinduism and Buddhism, this
was not an attempt to denigrate
conventional religion, but to set it
in a broader philosophical context.

Not quite an illusion
The most obvious way to describe
Shankara’s view of the world is
that he regards it as an illusion

(maya), although his claim is

slightly more subtle than that.

Shankara suggests there are two

levels of reality, which are both

false in some way: the apparent

world (which we appear to see

and touch around us), and the

pragmatic world (which is a view

of the world according to our own

preconceived notions). While

the apparent world is derived from

our senses’ interpretation, the

pragmatic world is derived from

our minds projecting outward,

imposing our ideas upon our

environment (such as organizing

a spiky green shape into “a leaf”).

However, both of these ideas of the

world are incorrect since they are

only our representations of the

world. So we can say that the

world of our experience is an

illusion, but not that the world

itself—beyond the knowledge

given by the senses—is an

illusion. The world of the senses is

SEEING WITH PURE CONSCIOUSNESS

maya (illusion). Shankara’s

philosophy is described as non-

dualist because of this; there are

not two different realities—the

world and Brahman—but just one.

When a person becomes aware

of the identity of atman (the true

self) and Brahman (a single reality),

there follows a recognition that the

conventional self, as an object

among other objects in the world,

is partly an illusion. Enlightened

awareness is a realization of what

we have been all along—the

atman of pure consciousness; and

compared with this idea, the ever-

changing and superficial physical

body is relatively unreal.

The gods point the way

The distinction between nirguna

and saguna Brahman (unqualified

versus qualified reality), and the

contrast between knowledge

gained through sense experience,

and understanding acquired

through pure consciousness, are of

fundamental importance—not just

for an understanding of Hinduism,

but for religion in general.

These distinctions suggest

that there are two levels of religion.

At a popular level there may be

devotion to a chosen deity (as

in the bhakti tradition), and the

This world is transitory. One

who has taken birth in it

is living as if in a dream.

Nirvana Upanishad

Shankara proposed that
the world of the senses is
an illusion and that we
impose our ideas upon our
environment, causing us, for
example, to see things that
may not be present.