Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Minor Religious Systems v2.c13.348.3

v2.c13.348.3

Nimbārka maintains that the other two substances do not characterise God or form his body, but are dependent upon him for their existence, and in a subtle form constitute his power or capacity, which develops into the animate and inanimate world. Viṣṇusvāmin, and therefore Vallabha, hold that the highest God, or Parabrahman, manifests himself as the material world, the individual soul, and the supreme controller, but in the course of development his attributes of intelligence and joy are concealed by his mysterious power, and thus is produced the material world, while, his joy alone being concealed, individual souls come into existence, and when the three are manifest or unconcealed, he becomes the supreme controller. Vallabha adds two other forms of Parabrahman or Puruṣottama, as mentioned in the section on his system. Madhva rejects the doctrine of God being the constituent cause of the world and consequently that of his development, and lays down the five eternal distinctions between God, man, and the world and between different individuals and objects involved in the last two. Of the older Śaiva schools, the Pāśupata brings in the Pradhāna of the Sāṃkhyas with its developments as the material cause of the world with Paśupati as the efficient cause. Śrikaṇṭha Śivācārya in his comment on Br. S.