It first says, truly, "There is nothing _without_ God." It next says, falsely, "There is nothing _but_ God." This second step was taken in India by means of the doctrine of _Maya_, or _Illusion.

Maya_ means the delusive shows which spirit assumes.

For there is nothing but spirit; which neither creates nor is created, neither acts nor suffers, which cannot change, and into which all souls are absorbed when they free themselves by meditation from the belief that they suffer or are happy, that they can experience either pleasure or pain.

The next step is to polytheism.

For if God neither creates nor destroys, but only seems to create and destroy, these _appearances_ are not united together as being the acts of one Being, but are separate, independent phenomena.