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64
The Lord is a causal agent in all activity. For
scripture says, 'He makes him whom he wishes to lead up
from these worlds do a good deed; and the same makes him
whom he wishes to lead down from these worlds, do a bad
deed' (KauU. 3.8); and again, 'He who dwelling within
the self pulls the self from within' [BU 3.7.2-23].29
Although, like the Lord, the jiva is without
beginning, it does have an end, attained when its
individuality dissolves in the state of mok峁�a. 脦svara,
however, is eternal. The cycles of creation go on forever,
and so does the Lord who rules over them. Like time and the
process of change, he is without beginning and without
end.30
In 艢amkara's comments on BS 1.1.5, we read:
If, as the adherents of the Yoga-艣膩stra assume, the
Yogins have a perceptive knowledge of the past and the
future through the favor of the Lord; in what terms
shall we have to speak of the eternal cognition of the
ever pure Lord himself, whose objects are the creation,
subsistence, and dissolution of the world 131
脦svara may vanish for the individual who attains final
liberation, but never for the world as a whole.
艢ankara advances several proofs for the existence of
God of the sort that would be entirely acceptable in
theistic circles, and he deals extensively with the problem
of theodicity. 32 He also explicitly accepts that central
element of Hindu devotional religion, the doctrine of
periodic divine incarnation (avat膩ra) on earth. "The
"O
highest Lord, he declares, "may, when he pleases, assume a
bodily shape formed of m膩y膩, in order to gratify thereby his
devout worshippers."33 He supports this statement by a