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The Omnipotence of Brahman-God in Indian and Western Thought (I)

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The Omnipotence of Brahman-God in Indian and Western Thought (I) GOPAL STAVIG The Omnipotence of Brahman-God in Indian and Western Thought (I) GOPAL STAVIG ndian thinkers hold that omnipotent The world and individual souls are Brahman is the totality of Existence of completely dependent on Brahman (God) Iwhich we are a part. who is their supporter and controller.3 According to Ràmànuja (c. 1017-1137), Spiritual progress involves the realization Brahman (God) is omnipotent (Ananta- that we are all modes of Brahman, always virya, Sarvashakti) being the only creator, under His control and absolutely dependent maintainer, and destroyer of the universe. on Him. In time the soul realizes its likeness Divine providence rules the world because to Brahman and is no longer bound by we are all modes of Brahman. ‘All sentient universal ignorance (avidyà) and its karmic and non-sentient beings together constitute consequences. the body of the Supreme Person, for they are Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) completely controlled and supported by Him expressed the idea that, ‘She [Divine for His own ends, and are absolutely Mother] is the power of all causation. She subordinate to Him.’ ‘The Divine Supreme energizes every cause unmistakably to Person, whose wishes are eternally fulfilled, produce the effect. Her will is the only law, who is all-knowing and the ruler of all . and as She cannot make a mistake, Nature’s having Himself entered into those souls as laws—Her will—can never be changed. their inner Self abides within them, She is the fructifier of every action.’4 ‘God is controlling them as an animating and the omnipotent supporter of the universe. cheering principle.’1 ‘The entire universe, What is called “law” is the manifestation of composed of spiritual and non-spiritual His Will. He rules the universe by His entities, is pervaded by God who is its inner laws.’5 ‘The totality of all souls, not the ruler . and He does so in order to reign human alone, is the Personal God. The will and maintain them, although they themselves of the Totality nothing can resist. It is what are unable to see Him. In this way all beings we know as law.’6 ‘Ishvara [Personal God] depend on God because they constitute His is the sum total of individuals, yet He is an body. But God does not depend on them for Individual, as the human body is a unit, of they serve no purpose in maintaining His which each cell is an individual. being; nor does God contain these beings Omnipotence and omniscience are obvious like a jug contains water. How, then, does qualities and need no argument to prove God pervade them? In virtue of His will. from the very fact of totality.’7 God is thus, Behold His yoga, miraculous and peculiar to both omnipotent and omniscient, the only Him alone: God supports all beings, but no free individual who is the first cause in the being is of use to Him. It is His will which chain of events. He creates the world originates, sustains and rules the beings.’2 because He desires too and is not bound by 20 Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture September 2018 THE OMNIPOTENCE OF BRAHMAN-GOD IN INDIAN AND WESTERN THOUGHT (I) any law or necessity. We cannot desire manifesting Itself.’11 something unless we first know the object Ishvara is the omnipresent, omnipotent, and thus, there is no willing that is not omniscient, and eternal Universal Mind and preceded by knowing. Divine Intellect Body, of which our mind and body is a modifies into the Divine Will, which fragment. Every individual is a quantum of manifests as desires that combine to produce the universe with its individual the cosmos.8 In one quote Vivekananda uses characteristics. Ishvara manifests Its nature the pronoun ‘She’ and in another ‘He’ for in the system of its parts, expressing Itself in Brahman-God. At a higher level, It a particular way, thereby determining the transcends gender, but manifests in both characteristics of each of its components. female and male form. Each manifestation is Some lesser unities (individual minds and equal in status and power, each providing a physical objects) reveal more of the different path to Brahman-God. characteristics of Ishvara to which they Divine all-powerfulness is described by belong than others. There are no completely Swami Abhedananda (1866-1939) as a isolated independent causes and effects in whole-part relationship. He says, ‘Each the universe; each component of the system individual soul is related to God as a part is is completely determined by its connections related to the whole. As a part cannot exist with all other events and entities. Being independently, so our souls cannot exist complete in Itself, Ishvara forms a single independent of the Soul of the universe. and direct experience, while Its component Therefore we live and move and exist in and experiences are fragmentary and less through the whole, or Ishvara [Personal immediate. The magnitude of saintliness and God].’9 ‘The whole universe may be goodness of an individual is proportionate to considered as one universal whole, and each the degree of correspondence between the separate individual is like a cell in the individual mind and the Cosmic Mind.12 Cosmic Body. Each individual has All things are a part of the totality, consciousness, has life of its own, but the Ishvara (God), which is the ultimate source sum total of these make up the of all forms of existence. It is essentially consciousness of the Universal Being.’ omnipotent and omniscient, while Its Worship the ‘supreme Lord of the universe, fragments participate in Ishvara’s Being to who dwells in all beings and who is the life varying degrees. A plant participates in and soul of all animate and inanimate Ishvara’s power and knowledge to a lesser objects of the world. His will is the degree than a human, which varies from one Cosmic Will of which our individual will is person to the next. Everything is through but a fractional part. He is called in Vedanta another except for Ishvara that exists Ishvara, which means the Creator ie, through Itself. By analogy, fire is hot by its projector of the phenomenal universe and nature, while water becomes hot by the governor of all.’10 ‘Our individual will participating in the fire’s heat. which we have so long thought to be ours, is Ontologically, Brahman-God’s power is first not ours, but a part and parcel of that one subtle and subjective and then manifested Cosmic Will, which is moving the universe and objective. Physical energy is an from the minutest atom to the biggest solar imperfect copy of the Shakti (Power) of system, and our bodies are nothing but so Brahman-God. When a cue ball makes many small instruments through which that contact with an object ball, the kinetic all-pervading Cosmic Will is expressing or energy that is transferred is the Shakti in a Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture September 2018 21 GOPAL STAVIG lesser form. Similarly, this Shakti energizes factor in what happens to its constituent the human will. parts, the lower level. If God interacts The relationship between Ishvara’s with the world-System as a totality, then omnipotence and the power of humans is not God, by affecting its overall state, could be univocal (having the same meaning) or envisaged as being able to exercise influence equivocal (having different meanings). It is upon events in the myriad sublevels of analogical because there must be some existence of which it is made without similarity between the power of Ishvara the abrogating the laws and regularities that cause, and Its effects in the universe.13 specifically apply to them. In this model, the Because of the whole-part relationship proposed kind of interactions of God with between the omnipotent and omniscient the world-System would not, according to Ishvara and humans, a fundamental panentheism, be from “outside” but from psychological drive is an innate desire to “inside” it. The world-System is regarded as express power (pràna), energy, and force, being ‘in God.’15 and to acquire knowledge. The desire for Western thinkers hold that Omnipotent omnipotence is an important source of God is the First Cause of all events. Indian psychological motivation in all phases of thinkers emphasize a whole-part causal life. The ‘will to manifest pràna’ (power, relationship between Ishvara and humanity. energy) is expressed in humans physically This relationship covers both the gross body through the body, mentally through the in physical space and the subtle body of mind, spiritually through the Spirit, socially, Ishvara and humans in mental space. Power and in other ways. It provides motivation for exists in both realms. Western writers focus every kind of success in every area of in on a temporal causal relationship between endeavour along with an accompanying God, the first cause, and humanity. In other, feeling of self-esteem, self-respect, and self- according to various interpretations, creation confidence. The opposing psychological proceeds from the whole (totality) to the state is Sigmund Freud’s ‘Death Instinct part, first cause to secondary causes, and (Thanatos)’, the desire to return to the from unity to diversity, perfect to imperfect, tàmasic powerless inert and inorganic state original to copy, and Existence to found in alcoholism, drug addiction, and participation in It. depression.14 Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), the The Oxford University biochemist Jewish thinker born in Spain, who migrated Arthur Peacocke has worked out a detailed to Egypt in 1160, stated, ‘Everything that scientific model of the interaction of God as passes from potentiality to actuality has the whole on the part—the world-System.
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