Indian Philosophy v2.c26.s41.2.3

v2.c26.s41.2.3

Īśvara is the support (ādhāra) of his own essential qualities, as well as those of the objects dependent on him.¹ The Supreme has " a divine form peculiar to itself, not of the stuff of prakṛti and not due to karma."² A body is not a mere combination of the elements or something which is sustained by prāṇa or life-breath. It is not the seat of the senses or the cause of pleasure-pain. It is, according to Rāmānuja, " any substance which a conscious soul is capable of completely controlling and supporting for its own purposes, and which stands to the soul in an entirely subordinate relation."³ Though embodied, God does not suffer, seeing that karma, and not embodiedness, is the cause of suffering.⁴ He is the Lord of karma, for the latter by itself cannot give rise to the consequences. Action, which is non-intelligent and transitory, is incapable of bringing about a result connected with a future time.⁵ It is the supreme Lord that bestows the different forms of enjoyment in this and the heavenly world. We may say also that Brahman is devoid of form,⁶ though connected with various forms, for " the individual soul is connected with the shape of the body in which it dwells, since it participates in the pleasures and pains to which the body gives rise ; but, since Brahman does not share these pleasures and pains, it has no form."⁷ Brahman is not touched by the suffering of souls or the mutations of matter.