World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 291

lutes of prakhti. Thus the theory of causality advocated by Svāminārāyana Is 'Parabrahma-prasāśita-prakhti-parināmavāda'. Here a point worthy of note is though God is both the efficient and the material cause of the universe both He and Akñara are not directly united with prakhti in the act of creation. Parabrahman does not suffer any transformation in Himself, but only through modes comprehended in the whole of which He is the immanent inspiring principle. He is not only the Absolute, but He also is the inner ruler who dwells within everything and makes all changes possible by the exercise of His power and inspiration through the via media of Mula-puruña. Nor does Akñara the ever stable (kuöastha) support and substratum and all pervading cidākāsa undergo any transformation in the process of creation.
God's will to create is an expression of His beneficence towards jivas and not of callous cruelty towards them. Rather there is a divine teleology in God's act of creation. It is not a mere purposeless purpose of sport. The munificent desire in creation is to give the eternally bound souls an opportunity to work out by their own appropriate efforts, the right means to become free from the yoke of māyā and thereby attain final emancipation. It also makes one more point clear that, the world is not an illusion, appearance of māyā. The world is real. In the state of pralaya, jivas and iśvaras. return to their primordial (original) state and exist undifferentiated in the body of Parabrahman. They do not lose their entity in so far as they have potentiality to manifest again at the time of next creation.
Isvara By 'iśvara', Svāminārāyaṇa refers to subordinate gods and goddess. Of course, his list of iśvaras is very exhaustive as to include cosmic selves right from Brahmā to Puruña, the lord of pradhāna (i.e. lower prakhti). Isvaras are the conscious selves with relatively greater pervasiveness, knowability, power and excellence extending upto the domain of the world to which they are bound. Iśvaras stand higher than the jivas, but exist within the gamut of māyā - prakḥti. Each of the iśvaras is assigned the duty and responsibility of taking care of a world or at least a department of it. Iśvaras (cosmic selves) too have their atman of atomic size, though of course they are endowed with aišvarya ( special power- opulence) as a property specific to them. In addition, their jïana sakti (dharmabhutajiana is much expanded to cover the knowledge of the whole to which they attached. The iśvaras have the qualities of sat-cid -ānanda ( existence-consciouness-bliss) manifest in a much higher degree(quantum) in them than the jivas. The power, strength, capacitylife-span and knowledge of iśvaras is comparivitely is much more long, wide and excellent than the jivas.
The iśvaras are conditioned by mahāmāyā, Virāt, sutrātmā and avyākhta are the three bodies of iśvaras. Isvaras too worship the Lord Nārāyana as their supreme object of adoration. In the visiñöādvaita of Rāmānuja too, Brahmā, Rudra, Indra and other gods are called impure, as
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