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tolerably accurate idea of him and his virtues and attributes by a careful analysis and critical survey of the available facts and material.
GOD,
The word God is used in several different senses by mankind, though, so far as we are aware, no attempt has been made by any philosopher or theologian to explain its different significances hitherto. Some of these significances may be put down as follows:
(1) the notion of Consciousness in the abstract, taken as an all-pervading Essence, or Existence;
(2) the idea of a liberated Soul, and collectively of all the liberated Souls, who reside above the realm of 'illusion,' that is, high up above the universe of name and form, hence the Most High;
(3) the notion of the creative principle, the 'kuwwati-khayal', or Imagination;
(4) the notion of a man-like personal Creator; and (5) the conception of the creative logoi, that is, thoughts of the all-pervading, unmanifest Essence, the Spirit of God.
Of these, the first two are to be found in almost all systems of religion, though generally hidden behind allegory and metaphor, the third is based on a psychological and metaphysical analysis of the functions of mind, the fourth is a pure dogma of ignorant superstition, and the last is a personification of ideas, or the collective aspect of jnana. As instances of the first type, we might mention Allah, from al and lah, the secret one,' and Brahman, the unrevealed, as distinguished from Brahmâ, the revealed, Godhead, the Father who cannot be known unless revealed by the Son (Luke X. 22). The
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