Indian Philosophy v2.c26.s36.2

v2.c26.s36.2

It is generally said that Śaṃkara’s Advaita, though a masterpiece of intellect, cannot inspire religious piety. His Absolute cannot kindle passionate love and adoration in the soul. We cannot worship the Absolute whom no one hath seen or can see, who dwelleth in the light that no man can approach unto. The formless (nirākāram) Absolute is conceived as formed (ākāravat) for the purposes of worship. Worship of God is not a deliberate alliance with falsehood, since God is the form in which alone the Absolute can be pictured by the finite mind. The highest reality appears to the individual, who has not felt its oneness with his own nature, as possessing a number of perfections.¹ The conception of a personal God is the fusion of the highest logical truth with the deepest religious conviction. This personal God is an object of genuine worship and reverence, and not a non-ethical deity indifferent to man’s needs and fears. He is regarded as creator, governor and judge of the universe, possessing the qualities of power and justice, righteousness and mercy, omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience. Holiness of character and moral beauty are prominent aspects of Śaṁkara’s God. He is set over against the human soul, who stands to him in the relation of a beloved to a lover, a servant to a master, a son to a father, and a friend to a friend. The severity of metaphysical abstraction relaxes when Śaṁkara dwells on the variety of the divine qualities by which the eternal draws to himself the spirits of the children he has made. Religion for Śaṁkara is not doctrine or ceremony, but life and experience. It starts with the soul’s sense of the infinite and ends with its becoming the infinite. Sākṣātkāra, or intuition of reality, is the end of religion. True bhakti is seeking after one’s own real nature.² There are many vidyās, or forms of contemplation advocated in the Upaniṣads,³ and each individual has to select one of those, suited to his temper.⁴ There is unity with regard to the object, though there is variety in the mode of approach. Religious worship is broadly of two kinds, that of a personal God, as Saguṇa Brahmā, and that of symbols (pratīka).⁵ When the worshipper looks upon God as external to him, his worship is symbolic.