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THE PHILOSOPHY OF ISVARA.
understood that the personal God worshipped by the bhakta is not separate or different from the Brahman. All is Brahman, the One without a second : only the Brahman as unity or absolute, is too much of an abstraction to be loved and worshipped ; so the bhakta chooses the relative aspect of Brahman, that is, Isvara, the Supreme Ruler. To use a simile : Brahman is as the clay or substance out of which an infinite variety of articles are fashioned. As clay, they are all one ; but form or manifestation differentiates them. Before ever one of them was made, they all existed potentially in the clay ; and, of course, they are identical substantially ; but when formed, and so long as the form remains, they are separate and different ; the clay-mouse can never become a clayelephant, because, as manifestations, form alone makes them what they are, though as unformed clay they are all one. Isvara is the highest manifestation of the absolute
