The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c7.s7.t3.2

c7.s7.t3.2

That empirical theism (for which the world is real and different from God) is untenable appears nowhere so clearly as in the region of morals. For however the matter be turned, in a real creation, which is seriously taken, the responsibility for evil, and for the sin of the world finally falls on God. This consequence does not trouble the morally undeveloped conscience. Therefore it is said in *Isaiah* XLV, 7: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil; I the LORD do all these things.” And in the *Kaushîtaki-Up.* 3, 8: it is expressed even more strongly: “For he makes those do good works whom he will guide out from this world, and he makes those do evil, whom he will guide downwards; he is the guardian of the world, he is the ruler of the world, he is the lord of the world.”—The Hebrews gained a solution of the question more apparent than real by adopting (or rather adapting) Satan from the mythology of Persia, and thereby satisfying themselves. The Indians in a more philosophical spirit recognised the fact that there are only two ways out of this: either by referring the constitution (essentia), and also the creation (existentia) of the world not to God but to an immanent principle, or (idealistically) by denying the existence of the world altogether. We find Ṣaṅkara taking both ways, by bringing forward, as he always does, both empirical and metaphysical arguments for the solution of the problem.