Ishvara
Īśvara (IAST)Translation: "The Lord"
From Mandukya Upanishad (Verse 5)
A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy
Sanskrit: ईश्वर
Transliteration: Īśvara
Translation: "Lord; God; the Great God (from the verb root īś – “to rule”); a quality (Tattva) in Shaivism"
Definition:- The Divine with form (Saguṇa-Brahman).
- According to Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, He is the supreme Ruler and Controller. He is full of auspicious qualities. He is both transcendent and immanent. The world of animate and inanimate entities emerges from His body. He is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. He is all-merciful and by His grace, individual souls attain liberation. He is the author of the universe, both as its material and efficient causes. He manifests himself in five forms as transcendent (Parā); emanations (Vyūha); incarnations (Vibhava); indweller (Antaryāmin); and sacred icons (Arcā). As Parā, he possesses six divine qualities: knowledge (Jñāna), strength (Bala), lordship (Aiśvarya), potency (Śakti), virility (Vīrya), and splendour (Tejas).
- According to Advaita Vedānta, God (Īśvara) is the Absolute (Brahman) as conditioned by ignorance or illusion (Avidyā / Māyā). The Absolute knows no distinctions; yet in relation to the world, the Godhead becomes its source and ground. Īśvara is both the material and efficient cause of the world. The Saguṇa-Brahman (Īśvara) is said to be omnipotent, omniscient, and the creator, etc.
- The fourth category (Tattva) in the process of universal manifestation. In this Tattva, “I” and “this” are equally prominent. The consciousness of Sadāśiva is “I am this.” The consciousness of Īśvara is “This am I.” Knowledge (Jñāna) is predominant in this Tattva.
Glossary to the Record of Yoga (Sri Aurobindo)
Transliteration: Īśvara
Meaning: "lord; the supreme Being (Puruṣottama) as the Lord, “the omniscient and omnipotent All-ruler” who by his conscious Power (Śakti) “manifests himself in Time and governs the universe”, ruling his self-creation with “an all-consciousness in which he is aware of the truth of all things and aware of his own all-wisdom working them out according to the truth that is in them;” identified with Kṛṣṇa; the individual soul (Puruṣa or Jīva) as the master of its own nature."
The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad (Swami Krishnananda)
Sanskrit: ईश्वर
Transliteration: Īśvara
Commentary: "In correspondence with this Prājña, or the causal condition of Ānandamayatva of the Jīva, there is a Universal Causal Condition, known as Īśvara. While the waking consciousness, individually, is called Viśva, it is called Taijasa in dream, and Prājña in the deep sleep state. Correspondingly, from the cosmic level, we have Virāt in waking, Hiraṇyagarbha in dreaming, and Īśvara in deep sleep. While we, ordinarily, hold that the impressions of waking create dream and an adjournment of all the activities of these impressions is sleep, thus deducing dream from waking and sleep from both, in the cosmic level we cannot make such deductions, because a reverse process takes place there which seems to be a prior condition to the individual state: Īśvara being the cause of Hiraṇyagarbha, and Hiraṇyagarbha being the cause of Virāt. The relationship between the individual and the cosmic, between Viśva and Virāt, Taijasa and Hiraṇyagarbha, Prājña and Īśvara is one of organic integrality, and a realization of this organic connection of being will land the Jīva in Īśvaratva and make it at once omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent."
Image by: One Cosmic Mind
Image by: One Cosmic Mind
"This Consciousness as the cause of all things is also the Lord over everything – Eṣa Sarveśvaraḥ. Now, this epithet Sarveśvaraḥ as also the other qualification, Sarvajña, omniscient, cannot be attributed to the Jīva, because the Jīva is not Sarveśvaraḥ, and so not also Sarvajña. The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad seems to make no palpable distinction between the individual and the cosmic, and it harmonizes the relation between Jīva and Īśvara. The causal condition of the Jīva, namely Prājña, is regarded only as a part of the Cosmic Causal State of Īśvara. To this Upaniṣad, there is only one Reality, and the distinctions that we usually make between the Cosmic and the individual, between Īśvara and Jīva, are overcome in the higher analysis of the Upaniṣad. It is all God, and God alone, Īśvara everywhere, and the Jīva has no place to exist apart from the Being of Īśvara. So, when you describe the nature of God, you have also described the nature of all creation including the contents thereof, together with all the Jīva. We need not describe the drop separately when we describe the ocean; and so, the ocean is being described here, the ocean of causality that is designated as Īśvara, from whom proceed Hiraṇyagarbha and Virāt. Eṣa Sarveśvaraḥ: This is the Overlord of all; the Master of all things; supremely powerful. Eṣa Sarvajña: This Being is all-knowing, omniscient. Nothing can be hidden from the perception of this Being. Īśvara is omnipresent and so He is also omniscient; therefore, also, He is omnipotent. The All-pervading Presence of Īśvara explains His omniscience. The Jīva is not characterized by this knowledge because of its being localized in spots in space, because of the mind of the Jīva not being capable of moving outside its own body, because of our thoughts being confined to our personalities. We are, as Jīva, Aikadeśika, present only in one place, while Īśvara is Sarvagata, present everywhere. The knowledge of Īśvara is not ‘cognition’ of objects, and no ‘cognition’ or ‘perception’ can be regarded as a part of omniscience, because the objects of cognition do not come under the control of the cognizer, necessarily. Though we cognize objects outside, we cannot be said to have power over them fully. We see the whole world with our eyes, but what power have we over the world. Our knowledge does not bring us power, though it is often said that knowledge is power. Knowledge is power, but not sensory knowledge. It is some other knowledge altogether that can be equated with power. Sarvajñatva becomes identical with Sarvaśaktimatva only under a given condition and not always. Though we may have vast knowledge in the sense of learning or information, we cannot be said to have power over the things or objects of this type of knowledge. While the Jīva’s knowledge is sensory, perceptual and cognitional, Īśvara’s knowledge is intuitional. While the Jīva’s knowledge cannot be identified with the existence of its objects, Īśvara’s knowledge is identical with the existence of everything. While ‘sat’ and ‘cit’ unite in the Being of Īśvara, they get separated in the case of the Jīva. This is the reason why the Jīva is neither Sarvajña nor Sarveśvaraḥ, the reason being that the world is outside the knowledge of the Jīva, though the Jīva seems to have a cognition of the objects by a process artificially brought about through the relation of space and time. The knowledge of Īśvara is above space and time, and is non-relational. The Jīva’s knowledge is relative; Īśvara’s knowledge is absolute. Īśvara is, and His Being itself is all knowledge and power, while the Jīva’s being cannot be equated with knowledge and power. The Jīva’s existence is separated from its knowledge, and knowledge from power, while all these are one in the case of Īśvara. So, it is only Īśvara who can be called Sarveśvaraḥ and Sarvajña; and the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad, while describing the third Pāda or phase of the Ātman as the cause of all things and qualifying it with the epithets Sarveśvaraḥ and Sarvajña, obviously refers to the Universal Īśvara."
The Science of Yoga (I.K. Taimni)
Sanskrit: ईश्वर
Transliteration: Īśvara
Translation: Part 1, Verses 24-32
"Īśvara is a particular spirit (Puruṣa) who is untouched by the afflictions of life, actions and the results and impressions produced by these actions. In Him is the highest limit of Omniscience. Being unconditioned by time, He is Teacher even of the Ancients. His designator is ‘Om.’ Its constant repetition (Japa) and meditation (Bhāvana) on its meaning. From it (result) the disappearance of obstacles and turning inward of consciousness. Disease, languor, doubt, carelessness, laziness, worldly-mindedness, delusion, non-achievment of a stage, instability, these (nine) cause the distraction of the mind, and they are the obstacles. (Mental) pain, despair, nervousness, and hard breathing are the symptoms of a distracted condition of mind. For removing these obstacles, there (should be) constant practice of one truth or principle."
"Īśvara is a particular spirit (Puruṣa) who is untouched by the afflictions of life, actions and the results and impressions produced by these actions. In Him is the highest limit of Omniscience. Being unconditioned by time, He is Teacher even of the Ancients. His designator is ‘Om.’ Its constant repetition (Japa) and meditation (Bhāvana) on its meaning. From it (result) the disappearance of obstacles and turning inward of consciousness. Disease, languor, doubt, carelessness, laziness, worldly-mindedness, delusion, non-achievment of a stage, instability, these (nine) cause the distraction of the mind, and they are the obstacles. (Mental) pain, despair, nervousness, and hard breathing are the symptoms of a distracted condition of mind. For removing these obstacles, there (should be) constant practice of one truth or principle."
References:
- Grimes, John (1996). A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English. Albany: State University of New York Press
- Hartz, Richard. Glossary to the Record of Yoga (Sri Aurobindo). Retrieved from http://wiki.auroville.org.in/wiki/Glossary_to_the_Record_of_Yoga.
- Krishnananda, Swami (1996). The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad. Retrieved from https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/mand_0.html. p. 74-75, 76-78.
- Taimni, I. K. (1975). The Science of Yoga: The Yoga-sūtras of Patañjali in Sanskrit with Transliteration in Roman, Translation in English and Commentary: Theosophical Publishing House
