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The debates on Maya

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Indian philosophy-- regardless of which school of philosophy we are talking about-- distinguish between two forms of reality. The existential reality  of names and forms, including information constructs like knowledge, belief, etc. form what we generally know as reality. This is called Prakriti in the Samkhya philosophy and Maya in different other schools of thought.  But in addition to the existential reality in which we all dwell in, almost all schools of thought posit a deeper substratum that transcends all of existence and beyond. This " transcendental " reality, variously called Purusha , Brahman , or "that which is", etc. is postulated as the only entity there is.  Most philosophical writings are about how to realise this transcendental reality as a fact, and not as a postulate or an assertion, or as a matter of faith or belief. There are several techniques and paradigms (called marga or pathways) that are proposed, that systematically take the inquirer f