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The Bhaskara School of Philosophy
[CH.
for He can do so by various kinds of powers, modifying them according to His own will. He possesses two powers; by one He has become the world of enjoyables (bhogya-sakti), and by the other the individual souls, the enjoyers (bhoktr); but in spite of this modification of Himself He remains unchanged in His own purity; for it is by the manifestation and modification of His powers that the modification of the world as the enjoyable and the enjoyer takes place. It is just as the sun sends out his rays and collects them back into himself, but yet remains in himself the same1.
The Philosophy of Bhaskara's Bhāṣya.
From what has been said above it is clear that according to Bhaskara the world of matter and the selves consists only in real* modifications or transformations (puriņāma) of Brahman's own nature through His diverse powers. This naturally brings in the question whether the world and the souls are different from Brahman or identical with him. Bhaskara's answer to such a question is that "difference" (bheda) has in it the characteristic of identity (abhedadharmas ca)-the waves are different from the sea, but are also identical with it. The waves are manifestations of the sea's own powers, and so the same identical sea appears to be different when viewed with reference to the manifestations of its powers, though it is in reality identical with its powers. So the same identical fire is different in its powers as it burns or illuminates. So all that is one is also many, and the one is neither absolute identity nor absolute difference2.
The individual souls are in reality not different from God; they are but His parts, as the sparks of fire are the parts of fire; but it is the peculiarity of these parts of God, the souls, that though one with Him, they have been under the influence of ignorance, desires and deeds from beginningless time3. Just as the ākāśa, which is all the same everywhere; and yet the ākāśa inside a vessel or a house is not just the same ākāśa as the boundless space, but may in some
1 Bhaskara-bhāṣya, 11. 1. 27, also 1. 4. 25.
2 abheda-dharmaś ca bhedo yatha mahodadher abhedaḥ sa eva tarangadyātmanā vartamāno bheda ity ucyate, na hi tarangā-dayaḥ pāṣāṇā-diṣu drsyante tasyaiva tāḥ saktayaḥ śakti-saktimatoś ca ananyatvam anyatvam co-palakṣyate yatha'gner dahana-prakāśanā-di-saktayaḥ....tasmāt sarvam ekā-nekā-tmakam na'tyantam abhinnam bhinnam vā. Ibid. 11. 1. 18.
3 Ibid. 1. 4. 21.
