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THE PHILOSOPHY OF ISHVARA
Who is Ishvara? Huren sa: _“From Whom is the birth, continuation and dissolution of the universe, "-He is Ishvara—“the Eternal, the Pure, the Ever-Free, the Almighty, the All-Knowing, the AllMerciful, the Teacher of all teachers;" and above all " : aforågatan Harg9:"_“He the Lord is, of His own nature, inexpressible love."
These certainly are the definitions of a Personal God. Are there then two Gods? The “Not this, Not this," the Sat-chit-ânanda, the ExistenceKnowledge-Bliss, of the philosopher, and this God of Love of the Bhakta? No, it is the same Sat-chitananda who is also the God of Love, the impersonal and personal in one. It has always to be understood that the Personal God worshipped by the Bhakta is not separate or different from the Brahman. All is Brahman, the One without a second; only the Brahman, as unity or absolute, is too much of an abstraction to be loved and worshipped; so the Bhakta chooses the relative aspect of Brahman, that is. Ishvara, the Supreme Ruler. To use a simile : Brahman is as the clay or substance out of which an infinite variety of articles are fashioned. As clay, they are all one; but form or manifestation differentiates them. Before every one of them was made, they all existed potentially in the clay; and, of course,
