God / The Lord (Īśvara)
'The Lord' — ultimate reality for some, the highest face of the formless for others.
Īśvara is 'the Lord' — God conceived personally, the supreme being who creates and rules the world, hears prayer, and bestows grace. For the theistic schools, Īśvara is ultimate reality itself; for the non-dualists, Īśvara is the highest form in which the formless absolute appears to seekers within the world. Even the Yoga school, which is not centered on a creator, gives Īśvara a special place as an ideal object of devotion.
How it traveled
- Śvetāśvatara UpaniṣadKuru-Pañcāla region · -400explains
- Bhagavad-gītāKuru-Pañcāla region · -150explains
- UpadeśasāhasrīKālaḍi (Kaladi) · 710explains
- TantrasāraŚrīnagara (Srinagar), Kashmir · 1000explains
Key passages(20)
He is the beginning, producing the causes which unite (the soul with the body), and, being above the three kinds of time (past, present, future), he is seen as without parts , after we have first wors
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For there is one Rudra only, they do not allow a second, who rules all the worlds by his powers. He stands behind all persons , and after having created all worlds he, the protector, rolls it up at t
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I see Thee without beginning, middle or end, infinite in power, of manifold arms; the sun and the moon Thine eyes, the burning fire Thy mouth; heating the whole universe with Thy radiance.
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I am centred in the hearts of all; memory and perception as well as their loss come from Me. I am verily that which has to be known by all the Vedas, I indeed am the Author of the Vedânta, and the Kno
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Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
He (the Self) encircled all, bright, incorporeal, scatheless, without muscles, pure, untouched by evil; a seer, wise, omnipresent, self-existent, he disposed all things rightly for eternal years.
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The person (purusha), of the size of a thumb, stands in the middle of the Self (body ?), as lord of the past and the future, and henceforward fears no more. This is that.
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He who knows this living soul, which eats honey (perceives objects) as being the Self, always near, the Lord of the past and the future, henceforward fears no more. This is that.
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