Jump to ContentJump to Main Navigation
Classical Hindu ThoughtAn Introduction$
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content.
Classical Hindu Thought: An Introduction

Arvind Sharma

Print publication date: 2001

Print ISBN-13: 9780195658712

Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2012

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195658712.001.0001

Show Summary Details
Page of

PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (oxford.universitypressscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2020. All Rights Reserved. An individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use. date: 29 November 2020

Īśvara

Īśvara

Chapter:
(p.62) Chapter IV Īśvara
Source:
Classical Hindu Thought
Author(s):

Arvind Sharma

Publisher:
Oxford University Press
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195658712.003.0004

The one ultimate reality can be visualized either in personal or impersonal terms. However, the chronological order of priority of Brahman (neuter) and Brahman (masculine) cannot be determined with certainty. In fact, it is quite possible that the Hindus did not consciously distinguish between the two, and that may be why we find monotheism and monism ‘often mixed up with each other’ in the Brāhmanic period. This chapter discusses monotheism as represented by the concept of Īśvara. The qualified Brahman, if personified, becomes the God or Īśvara. Like it, God also may be represented as the cosmic parallel to the finite individual self, the distinction between them being entirely one of adjuncts.

Keywords:   Brahman, Hinduism, Brahmanic period, Monotheism, Īśvara, monism, God

Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.

Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.

If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.

To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .