The Philosophy of the Upanishads c9.s5.t2.1

c9.s5.t2.1

The relation of the first principle of things to created nature, or to use popular language, of God to the universe, is a problem which can never be completely solved, for a solution is excluded by the constitution of our intellectual powers. In proportion as we attempt to understand that relation—that is, to conceive it under the categories of our intellect, space, time and causality—we fall into an erroneous, or to put it more mildly into a figurative representation of the facts; and in proportion as we endeavour to rise above a mere figurative representation we are compelled to relinquish a real understanding. Four stages may be distinguished in the comprehension of that problem, which we may describe, at first in general and with reservation of their special application to India, as realism, theism, pantheism and idealism.