Excerpt from _Indian After-Dinner Stories_: Sankaracharya and Maya

[Guest guest]

Sankaracharya and Maya

 

From _Indian After-Dinner Stories_

http://www.archive.org/stream/indianafterdinne035081mbp/indianafterdinne035081mb\

p_djvu.txt

 

VlSHNUVARDHANA, the King of the Hoysalas, was a Vaishnavite and was greatly

incensed at the doctrine taught by Sankaracharya that everything here below

is an illusion. He wanted to teach the exponent of this doctrine a lesson.

So he invited the then Sankaracharya of Sringeri to his palace. That holy

man went there and stoutly maintained that everything in this world was

illusion. The king had arranged to let loose an infuriated elephant against

Sankaracharya. The beast rushed at Sankaracharya who took to a precipitate

flight to save himself.

 

'Oh, Venerable Sir,' shouted the king, 'why do you run so fast seeing that

the elephant is only an illusion?'

 

'Oh, king,' said Sankaracharya in tfie course of his flight, 'my running too

is an illusion. Everything in this world is an illusion.'

 

 

--

With Love,

Ganesh Baba

[Guest guest]

This story is related to the real Sankaracharya. So it is wrong to state that

" So he invited the THEN Sankaracharya of SRINGERI to his palace " . Your attempt

to spread hinduism is appreciated.

 

" As the magician

in not affected by the illusion (Maya) he has himself created, because

it is without reality (Avastu), so also Paramatman is not affected by the

illusion of a dream because the soul is not touched by sleep or waking. "

The ever- erring factor which disturbs the mental and psychic equilibrium

between the creator and his creation is Maya. Such mental aberrations have

relation to time and space and in their context unity is regarded as plurality,

heterogenity as homogenity. This is in brief the content of Maya as enunciated

by Shankara.

 

Regards

Rohri

 

--- On Mon, 1/4/10, Kriya Baba <kriyababa2 wrote:

 

Sankaracharya and Maya

 

 

From _Indian After-Dinner Stories_

 

http://www.archive. org/stream/ indianafterdinne 035081mbp/ indianafterdinne

035081mbp_ djvu.txt