ABSTRACT

Hinduism's ideas of God have been shaped by many cross-currents throughout its 5000-year-old history. Over the centuries, the interaction and synthesis of these beliefs has resulted in contemporary Hinduism with its varied teachings and diverse cults. "Hindus are much more positively inclined towards illusion", responds Freud's imaginary opponent. They tend to associate illusion with playfulness, or even benevolent deception, rather than with malignancy. In Vedic thought maya, generally translated as illusion, is identified as a particular power of the gods to create, a power later ascribed to magicians, artists, and, in certain Indian philosophies, to each one, at every moment of lives. The Vedic concept of maya, as a kind of artistic power gradually led to its later connotations of magic, illusion, and deceit. From an Indian, Hindu perspective, its major deficiency lies in its basic premise: the importance Freud attaches to religious beliefs and ideas in his portrayal of religious man.