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metaphysical positions of classical philosophers like Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Plato and Aristotle, as well as contemporary philosophers like Bradley, Alexander, Bergson and Whitehead. In the light of Radhakrishnan's own vision and convictions, he has received glimpses of truth from these philosophers and attempted to accommodate them in his metaphysical theory, io use C. A. Moore's words, "by virtue of his veritable genius for synthesis."27 In this respect Radhakrishnan has been rightly described by C. A. Moore as "the Thomas Aquinas of the modern age with his remarkable ability and determination to see things in their comprehensive entirety and thus to eleminate the sharp distinctions which to the narrow and smaller mind serve as the basis for isolation and even contradiction of the several cultures and philosophical traditions." 28
Metaplıysical Absolutism of Radhakrishnan accepts Absolute as only unconditional ultimate reality and conceives it in such a way that the tattatraya (Jiva, Jagata and Is'vara) become only contingent items in the totality of the Absolute. This may seem surprisingly very unfortunate, especially in the light of Radhakrishnan's sincere concern and impressive endeavours to work out a comprehensive philosophical system. Yet, this is the fact to be reckoned with, as it will be evident from the following outline of Radhakrishnan's Absolutism :
According to Radhakrishnan, "God is the timeless spirit attempting to realise timeless values on the plane of time. The ideal of the cosmic process which at the same time is its goal and explanation is real in one sense though wanting to be realised in another. The ideal is the greatest fact in one way and a remote possibility in another. The values which cosmic process is attempting to achieve are only a few of the possibilities contained in the Absolute. God is the definitisation of the Absolute in reference to the values of the world."29
Explaining further the distinction and relationship between the Absolute and God, Radhakrishnan has written that “the way in which the relation between the Absolute and God is here indicated is not the same as that of Šamkara or of Bradley, though it has apparent similarities to their doctrines. While the Absolute is the transcendent divine, God is the cosmic divine. While the Absolute is the total reality, God is the Absolute from the cosmic end, the consciousness that informs and sustains the world. God is, so to say, the genius of this world, its ground, which as a thought or a possibility of the Absolute lies beyond the world in the universal consciousness of the Absolute. The possibilities or the ideal forms are the mind of the Absolute or the thoughts of the Absolute. One of the infinite
