Ishvara

Ishvara (Sanskrit, m., ईश्वर, īśvara ) in Hinduism is a name for the respective highest, personal God, independent of a particular faith. It literally means Lord of the Universe ( from the root ish, prevail). Both Vishnu and Shiva are addressed by their followers with Ishvara.

Indian philosophers, thinkers, seers and saints understood by Ishvara an eternal, unique, omnipotent and omniscient Lord of the world. They assume that he created the world and have sorted appropriately, it gets destroyed as well, that he had called the natural and moral laws of the world into existence and proclaimed by revelations and also keeps the law of karma in motion.

Different Views

However, there are major differences between the different philosophies in detail. So there are different views about whether the Ishvara is not only the affection, but also the material cause of the world; whether to allow him moral qualities are attributed, or whether it is beyond good and evil.

The biggest difference between the philosophical schools that it up to the individual whether the Ishvara with a particular person of Indian gods is identical or not, and to those groups who are trying in the post-classical period in dogmatic approaches demonstrate that the Ishvara only and exclusively Vishnu or Shiva can be.

In classical Indian philosophy is the conception of a world Lord, the Ishvara, taught in a theistic and in a pan- en- theistic expression.

Pan -en- theistic expression

Even the Rig Veda teaches that a personal God is a quarter of its self had to cosmos can be, while also rich with three -quarters of its essence about him. This idea that God is at the same time in the world and endure throughout it is formed in the subsequent period in the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Puranas on.

Theistic expression

In the views of the later Nyaya Vaisheshika and Yoga, the Pashupatas and Madhva, the absolute difference between God and the world is emphasized. In contrast to Christian theism, which can create the world out of nothing God, represented Indian theists view, matter and souls had existed since eternity next to the Ishvara and the activities of the ruler of the world would be limited to the order and direction of the cosmos.

Other names

In the Bhagavad Gita ( 11.3-4 ) Krishna is as Parameshvara, " God Most High " ( Parama means "the Highest " ) and as Yogeshvara, "Lord of the Yogis " means. Maheshvara in turn is a famous name Siva ( Maha means " great").