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Along with the teaching in the Upanisads about Brahman, there comes the saguna Brahman. Saguna Brahman means Brahman and this Brahman is also called Isvara. 105 It should not be forgotten, however, that produces saguna Brahman, is not real but only apparent. 106 Isvara is the Brahman contained mayasakti and is not separate from Brahman it is the inherent character Brahman. 82

Man, attached as he is to body and material acquisitions, and influenced by passion, cannot worship or meditate upon the impersonal Brahman. It is difficult for man to concentrate on what appears to as 'nothingness' to him. It is for such one's benefit that Upanisads provide a personal Brahman. The Brh.Up. said that 'By 107 the yogins he is realized through worship'. In the [Ishavasya-upanisad] 'He us the transcendent, and uncreated, He has duly allotted the eternal world creators their respective duties. 108 There are definite affirmations regarding the nature of Isvara in the Vedas and Upanisads. The main trend of the Upanisad thought is in the direction of a monistic concept. There is only one without a second 'All this is Brahma'. This idea of Isvara is called the nirguna; He is devoid of all attributes. According to Advaita Vedanta there is no two Brahmans. Isvara is the conditioned or Saguna Brahman necessary for the purpose of worship. The world is merely a reflection of the ultimate reality. Existence apart from Brahman. The world is the creation of Isvara. That is this universe is the field of manifestation of Brahman, it has a great and important place for Isvara too on the phenomenal Plane. No doubt, the supreme Reality is trans-personal pure 83

consciousness. Brahman expresses itself cosmically through a universal personality on the phenomenal level, as the over soul of the whole universe, with the attributes of omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. Then Brahman, being associated with the universe as its ruler and controller, is known as Isvara. Since Isvara is universal and omnipresent, He has no definite form. He can assume any form as in the case of light and water, and can be approached under different limitted names and forms for purpose of worship and infinite and not limited to the conceived name and form, male or female. Isvara is described as both immanent and transcendent and as the material and efficient cause of the world. The concept of Isvara's immanence and transcendence, i.e. his, being in the world as well as outside it implies that he is made up of parts and there fore divisible. Isvara according to Sankara, is endowed with all auspicious qualities. He is the cause world. He is the object of 109 worship. He sees without eyes, listen without ear. As luminosity is the nature of sun, His nature is of the eternal knowledge. He is cause of all effects. He is Satyasankalpa, sarvajna, sarvasaktisamanvita, the Supreme Spirit. He is above all evil. He is the 84

antaryami, pervading subjective and objective world. All the perfections, metaphysical and moral, are ascribed to him. He is the crown of moral perfection. The conception of Isvara is not irrelevant intruism, tertium quid, an unnecessary intervening between the highest Reality and jiva. On the other hand, the 110 conception serves many practical purposes. He is the connecting link, the immediate step in the realisation of the pure spirit. The diversity of the world must be dissolved in to identity before it finally submerges into pure unity i.e. Brahman. Though saguna Brahman is not the highest possible experience, it is extremely valuable experience. Devotion of Isvara makes our road to Brahman clear and swift. At an early stage mind refuses to grasp the notion of immutable, indescribable absolute. At this stage the idea of merging their personal identity and losing their inviduality is unpalatable to them. The worship of Isvara prepares our mind to feel this unity to realise the identity, to visualise it is all 111 Brahman. The affirmation of saguna Brahman, how ever, is not merely an acknowledgement of human limitations, it is also the name for that spiritual experience that harmonizes rather than obliterates distinctions. 112 85

Isvara is both immanent and transcendent cause. The [Bhagavad Gita] said that 'He is without and within all being. He is free from the 114 dispositions of nature and yet. He enjoys them. He is without and within all beings..... Sankara discussed that before creation the phenomenal world existed in the mind of Isvara as its object. Sankara says the work of creation becomes the subject matter of the knowledge of Isvara before creation. 113 Isvara is not impelled by any special motive but for lila. This lila the nature of Isvara.' Describing Isvara as transcendent means that. He is exalted for above the universe and He is different from it. Crude finite and transient beings of this world cannot be equated with Isvara. Though Isvara is transcendent, He is immanent all the while in each and every being of this universe. In the Upanisads great stress is laid on the divine immanence. Concealed in the heart of things it is the light which shines beyond the heaven.115 The whole universe is enveloped or in habited by the 116 Lord. He is all pervading and is the inner self of all creatures. He presides over all actions and all beings reside in Him. He is the witness and He is pure consciousness free from the games of nature. 117 He is the imperishable one in whom all creatures abide. 118 86

The set-up extols the excellence of Isvara, Him who supreme, mighty Lord of Lores, the highest divinity of divinities, the supreme ruler of rulers, Him let us know as the adorable Isvara the 119 lord of the world. Sankara in respect of the existence of Isvara gives three arguments argument. Cosmological, Theological and Moral According to Sankara Isvara is the cause from which proceed the origin, Subsistence, and dissolution of this world of appearances which are differentiations of names and forms. The omniscient and 120 omnipotent Isvara is the cause of the world. He is the cause of 121 creation of the world." He is the material cause (upadanakarana) and the efficient cause (nimittakarana) of the 122 world. The undifferentiated names and forms, which are the seeds of phenomena of the empirical world, which are of the nature of nescience constitute the nature, as it were, of Isvara. 123 He is also its efficient cause. He is not a modification or effect. He is the 124 cause and the uncaused. The world is of the nature of Isvara, but Isvara is not of the nature of the world. The cause is real. The effect and its qualities are unreal. They are superimposed by avidya just as the magic illusion. Thus creation is empirically real. It is 87

ontologically real. It proves the identity of the world with first cause. So the entire world is non different from Isvara. This is the cosmological argument for the existence of Isvara. There are adjustments and adaptations in the world which can be adequately explained by Isvara only. The entire world adapted to the enjoyment of fruits of various actions of individual souls, including the element and the bodies of the different species with a definite arrangement of organs capable of being the vehicles of enjoyment and suffering, is contrived by omniscient and Omnipotent Isvara. The arrangement of the world including adjustments of the organs in various kinds of organisms cannot be even conceived by the most intelligent artists. So it must be contrived by Isvara who is the intelligent designer of the world. He acts upon the undifferentiated seeds of empirical names and forms, which constitute maya, and fashions them in to a definite 125 arrangement. This is the theological argument for the existence of Isvara. Isvara is the Lord of the Law of karma. 126 He awards fruits to the individual selves in accordance with their karmas or merits and demerits. He creates various objects for the enjoyments and sufferings of the individual selves according to their karmas, since 88

he knows them and the place and the time of their fruition. Isvara gives various fruits to jivas according to their karmas. 127 128 Fruits are fruits when they are enjoyed by the jivas. The Isvara is the source of the scriptures which reveal injunctions and prohibitions constituting the moral laws. He is the promulgator of them. The will of Isvara is the moral standard whatever is enjoyed by him is right. Whatever is forbidden by him is wrong. These prescriptions of Isvara are embodied in the Vedas which are 130 129 breathed out by him. This is the moral argument for the existing of Isvara.