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BRAHMANISM
and pervading the universe, and directing the mental propensities of finite beings through his universal, all-controlling power, it must be understood that He is performing a sort of play for which there is no spectator-like a child. “God” is the lonely cosmic dancer whose gestures are all beings and all the worlds. These stream forth without end from his tireless, unremitting flow of cosmic energy as he executes the rhythmic, endlessly repetitious gestures. Śiva, the dancing god, is not enthralled; and that is the principal distinction between thc Lord (īśvara) and the life-monads (jīva) that are dancing also in this universal play.
We little beings are trapped in the illusion of all these phantasmagoric forms. We think, actually, that we are human beings, that our individual ego is a reality, and so cling to ourselves, as well as to the false rcality of the other attractive and repulsive phenomena round about. Whereas God knows that his divine personality is a mask, a false impression which he is always capable of removing by a simple return of emphasis to his undifferentiated substance, for us our own personalities are as gross and durable as our ignorance itself, and the personality of God is the great unknown. His nature is, for us in our state of ignorance, unfathomable. And yet he is well called by us the “Inner Guide"; for he can become the illuminator of the whole aggregate of our ignorance. Just as the sun lights the world and dispels darkness, so that Divine Bcing, once known, lights ignorance and dissipates its product, this phenomenal sphere and all its phenomenal individuals. The sun is never contaminated by darkness; nor is the Divine Being by this world of ignorance in which his grace so miraculously plays.
The pure Self-which is the only really existing entity, sheer consciousness unlimited by any contents or qualifications, and complete bliss-in a cosmic association with ignorance, which is unaware of its own neither real nor unreal true nature, condescends to accept the personality and consciousness of the Lord of
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| SR No. | 007309 |
| Book Title | Philosophies of India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell |
| Publisher | Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd |
| Publication Year | 1953 |
| Total Pages | 709 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 34 MB |