Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/408

356 God, saying, “Let there be light” and there was light, of his making all things by the word of his power, enters not into the thoughts of the Hindu's heart.

If now we ask for an explanation of this mystery of the seemingly existent universe, the same answer returns, All is maya—illusion. Brahm, they say, has two modes of existence, the positive and negative. Originally, he existed in the negative state, devoid of all attributes, and unconscious even of his own being. This unconscious nothing was the sole existence. Suddenly he awakes, assumes the positive state, and exclaims, “I am.” By a volition, an act of the will, Brahm imagines a universe, and it exists, not in fact, be it remembered, but in the imagination of Brahm. This imagination is the universe. Brahm, by the power of his will, realizes his idea; yet it is not real: it is ideal, illusory, non-existent. The individuals of this illusory universe, unconscious of the truth that they are ideal creations of this volition, suppose themselves to be separate existences. This is folly, darkness, and deception. To discover that all separate and material existence is maya—illusion—is true wisdom. After the lapse of ages, according to this theory, this bubble of