Mayavada

Mayavada (Sanskrit maya, illusion, and vada, doctrine) is a term used to pejoratively refer to the Advaita philosophy of Adi Shankara. It is not used by the followers of the Advaita philosophy to refer to themselves. It is generally used as a derogatory term, by some Dvaita schools. Mayavada pertains to a doctrine where the personal forms of God are considered to be influenced by Maya (illusion) (and thus such philosophy is similar to atheism, so Mayavada also leads to spiritual suicide, because there is no service to Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, Vishnu) and only the one-ness of the Impersonal Brahman is considered to be the Absolute Truth.

According to Dvaita philosophy, Mayavada is an incorrect understanding of the nature of Supreme and it is strongly refuted by saints like Madhavacarya, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Baladeva Vidyabhusana, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and most recently by Bhaktivedanta Swami (the latter founded ISKCON). It's even considered a concealed atheism (because ultimately mayavadis say God is illusion or Maya, and as Maya is temporary, Mayavadis try establish that there is no God, he is temporary or illusory, and rather they try to say that they, mayavadis, are themselves 'gods' - they support such ideas by misinterpreting verses of Vedas, and by claiming that soul, jivaatma is as good as Brahman or Vishnu, and ultimately they say that "jivaatma is Vishnu, but that Vishnu Himself is just illusion, Maya, and there is no Vishnu". Demons like Ravana, Hiranyakashipu also didn't believe in Vishnu, but ultimately they were killed by Vishnu. So Mayavadis are always defeated by Vishnu, His avataras, and His devotees) by some scholars.

Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, mentions in his Indian Philosophy vol.2 that Nyayakosa includes Samkhya and Advaita Vedanta under naistika, i.e. unorthodox systems, or in other words that mayavadi is an atheist.^[1]

Debate on Mayavada's relevance

The prominent debate on relevance of Mayavada come from International Society for Krishna Consciousness from the purports in the Bhagavad-Gītā As It Is

See also

• Vedas
• Vedanta
• Krishnology

Notes

1. ^ Klostermaier 2007, p. 561 He specifically quotes the sentence: mayavadivedanti api naistika eva parvasana sampadyate ("In the end also the Vedantin holding the opinion of illusionism, mayavada, turn out to be nastika, i.e., non-believer in the Veda") This sentence was not found in the fourth edition, revised by V.S. Abhyankar.

References

• Klostermaier, Klaus K (2007), A Survey of Hinduism (3 rd ed.), New York: State University of New York Press, ISBN 0791470814 

External links

• Why is Advaita sometimes referred to as Mayavada