Page:Ramakrishna - His Life and Sayings.djvu/96

78 of Nescience only, or of, humanly speaking, inevitable Avidyi Even the phenomenal world and the individual souls, though due to Avidyi, are not, as we saw, considered as empty or false; they are phenomenal, but have their reality in Brahman, if only our eyes, by the withdrawal of Avidyd, are opened to see the truth. What is phenomenal is not nothing, but is always the appearance of that which is and remains real, whether we call it the Brahman, the Atman, the Abso- lute, the Unknowable, or, in Kantian language, das Ding an sick. Besides, it is recognised, even by the strictest monists, that for all practical purposes (vyavah&ra) the phenomenal world may be treated as real. It could not even seem to exist (videri) unless it had its real founda- tion in Brahman. The only riddle that remains is Avidyi or Nescience, often called Mdy& or illusion. *Sawkara him- self will not say that it is or that it is not real. All he can say is that it is there, and that it is the aim of the Vednta- philosophy to annihilate it by Vidy&, Nescience by science, proving thereby, it would seem, that Avidyi is not real.

At first sight this Vedftnta-philosophy is, no doubt, start- ling, but after some time one grows so familiar with it and becomes so fond of it that one wonders why it should not have been discovered by the philosophers of any other country. It seems to solve all difficulties but one, to adapt itself to any other philosophy, nay, to every kind of religion which does not intrench itself behind the ramparts of revela- tion and miracle. The difficulty is to find a natural approach to it from the position which we occupy in looking at philosophical and religious problems. I tried before to open