The general meaning of Iśvara is ‘lord’, ‘controller’, ‘a powerful king’ or’ highly able. It is used in the sense of the ‘highest’ — as in ‘Kapīśvara’, ‘Sureśvara’, ‘Kośaleśvara’, ‘Munīśvara’, ‘Kamaleśvara’ and the like. This sense is however different from the general uses of the term ‘Iśvara’ . In Indian theology and philosophy , gods are not ‘Iśvara’, and at the same time, they can be called Iśvara in the previously mentioned sense. Sometimes God becomes one with the gods, so there arises the need of differentiating that God from the lower gods. In Ṛgveda, when we see a movement from the worship of many gods to One God, the establishment of the supreme existence of that all-perbading Iśvara comes to the fore. In Puruṣasūkta it is said–
This Puruṣa has housands of heads, thousands of eyes, thousands of feet. He is all-pervading, he covers all the universe, and he himself takes the shape of a 10-finger-long being. He is the past, present, everything. He transcends everything by the ‘anna’ offered in yajña. He is the lord of immortal nectre (amṛtatvasya īśānaḥ). Whatever belongs to this earth, is possible by his grace– he is greater than all others, he puts one of his feet in the world, and his amṛta-like three feet of his
sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapāt
sa bhūmiṃ viśvato vṛtvātyatiṣṭhaddaśāṅgulam
puruṣa evedaṃ sarvaṃ yadbhūtam yacca bhavyam.
utāmṛtatvasyeśāno yadannenātirohati
etāvānasya mahimāto jyāyāṃśca puruṣaḥ.
pādo’sya viśvā bhūtāni tripādasyāmṛtaṃ divi.

There is no philosophical difference between this mantra-darśana of Ṛgveda and Arjuna’s vision of Viśvarūpa in Bhagavadgītā. Similarly, in Hiraṇyagarbhasūkta, the sage could not find any particular god to offer havi-
kasmai devāya haviṣā vidhema.
He rather sang in praise of the Almighty lord of creation. He is After that comes the famous utterance of Vāgambhṛṇī– I am eleven Rudra(s), I am eight Vasu(s), I am Mitra and Varuṇa, I am Indra and Agni, and the two Aśvinikumāra(s), that is, ‘I am all’. This ‘aham’ of Veda is also the core message of Upaniṣad. Here the entire living world becomes identified with that Supreme Brahman– ‘so’ham’, ‘ahaṃ brahmāsmi’. Among these great utterances, the identification of Jīvātmā with Parabrahma comes to the fore, and at the same time, it becomes difficult to conceptualise the almighty Supreme God, and his philosophical establishment takes place in a different kind of sādhana-prakriyā. In this way, he takes a form. In this way, ‘aśavdam asparśam arūpam avyayam’ manifests himself as the Supreme God. Upaniṣad says– he is a prāṇaśarīra with mind, he is glorious, he is–
sarvakarmā sarvakāmaḥ sarvagandhaḥ sarvarasaḥ sarvamidam.

From the dhātu-oriented meaning, the ‘īś’ dhātu offers a sense of ruling or controlling, and that significance becomes all the more evident in Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad–
imnāllokānīśate īśanībhiḥ.
This all-existing form of Iśvara becomes a definition of Iśvara in Skandapurāṇa, and that is cited in the dictionary of Apte. There it is said, “I am the Supreme One established in everything, and nobody can control me. I bestow aiśvarya over everybody, so I am hailed as Iśvara.

In the conception of Iśvara, there is always predominant the idea of an almighty supreme consciousness. In Mahābhārata and Purāṇa, in all hymns dedicated to all the gods, what is ultimately established is their identification with the Supreme God, Parabrahma. So the Paurāṇika gods also get manifested as the only and one Brahman. Brahman is called sat, cit and ānanda, and in the nnirviśeṣa condition, the feelings of bliss and perennial existence get mingled with the state of self-consciousness. While knowing the Brahman, the grand sensation of knowledge and existence, along with the sense of infinite bliss, rises upto the level of ecstasy, and so, in the śloka of Upaniṣad, the ecstatic feeling of bliss becomes knowledge-oriented–
“ami jenechi tnahare
mahanta purush jini andharer pare jyotirmaya

vedāhametaṃ puruṣaṃ mahāntam
ādityavarṇaṃ tamasā parastāt

mahatstamasḥ pāre puruṣaṃ hyatitejasam
yaṃ jñātvā mṛtyumatyeti tasmai jñānātmane namaḥ.

Iśvara is the ‘saviśeṣ’ manifestation of the ‘nirviśeṣa’, ‘nirākāra’ Brahman, He creates the world and all living beings–
etasmāt jāyate prāṇo manaḥ sarvendriyāṇi ca.
khaṃ vāyurjyotirāpaḥ pṛthivī viśvasya dhāriṇī.

Parabrahman is all-pervading as Īśvara, — this is abundantly recognised in our philosophy and theology. In Bhagavadgītā, we hear from God Himself– “I am all-pervading; this world is contained in a small part of myself. My existence is like the all-pervading wind. I am Paramātman and I also reside in jīvātman.
sarvasya cāhaṃ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ
God, who knows the innermost self, is in the heart of all beings—
īśvaraḥ sarvabhūtānāṃ hṛddeśe’rjuna tiṣṭhati.
This small utterance, on the one hand, presents Īśvara as ‘indifferent’ as the witnessing self in Sāṃkhyadarśana, and on the other, Iśvara puts the world into action, by using his divine māyā, and establishes Himself as the agent–
ya ātmāni tiṣṭhan ātmānamantaro na yamayati
yamātmā na veda, yasyātmā śarīratma
eṣa te ātmā antaryāmī amṛtaḥ.

It is to be noted that the all-glorious Brahman of Upaniṣad, the sākṣī cetā kevalo nirguṇaśca’ Paramātman becomes the embodied God, in the conception of Purāṇa. It is the same Advaya-jñānatatva– persons well-learned in theological philosophy sometimes call him Brahman, sometimes Paramātman, and sometimes Bhagavān–
vadanti tat-tatvavidastvam yajjñānamadvayam
brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavāniti śavdyate.In Bhāgavata Purāṇa, God or Īśvara has been viewed as one with the Brahman or Paramātman, and as a result, Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva have been established as Īśvara. And as female deities of Śakti, Durgā and Kālī have been established as Parameśvarī. In a Purāṇ as ancient as Viṣṇupurāṇa, God Viṣṇu is the fundamental power behind Creation, Preservation and Destruction, He pervades through the three abodes and He is the manifestation of Brahman–
sargasthiti vināśānāṃ jagato’sya jaganmayaḥ
mulabhūto namastasmai viṣṇave paramātmane.
Similarly in Vāyupurāṇa, Hiraṇyagarbha and Viśvamūrti have been haied as ‘Virāṭ’, as the expression of Paramātman, just as Śiva and Viṣṇu Brahmā is also hailed as Īśvara, the very form of Greatness.

In Kūrmapurāṇa it is said that Mahādeva is nirguṇa and niranjana, but he is also manifested in three forms. He is of one form, two forms and three forms. Dividing his souls in three forms, he moves through the three abodes, he creates, he destroys and he he preserves. Since he preserves the creatures and also consumes them, so he is called Advitīya–
eko’pi san mahādevastridhāsau samavasthitaḥ
sarga-rakṣā layaguṇainirguṇo’pi niranjanaḥ
ekadhā sa dvidhā caiva thidhā ca vahudhā guṇaiḥ
yogeśvaraḥ śarīrāṇi karoti vikaroti ca
nānākṛtikriyārūpanāmavanti svalīlayā
yasmāt sṛṣṭānugṛhnāti grasate ca punaḥ prajāḥ
guṇātkatvāt traikālye tasmādekaḥ sa ucyate.

” The attributive compound here denotes that (collection of things) which is characterised (as having creation at its beginning). The word asya denotes the world which is constituted in an unthinkably varied and wonderful fashion, and which is mixed up with all the individual souls, beginning with Brahma and ending with a clump of grass, each of which has its own particularly assigned enjoyment of fruits (of karmas) limited to particular time and places. The word yataḥ denotes that the Highest Person who is the lord of all, who possesses a nature which is holistic to all that is evil, who wills the truth, who posssses innumerable auspicious qualities, such as knowledge, bliss and who is omniscient, omnipotent and merciful to the highest degree, and from whom proceed creation, preservation, and destruction (it denotes that that Highest Person) is the Brahman. This is the meaning of this sūtra.

In some chapters of Mahābhārata, however, the necessity of the union of Puruṣa with Prakṛti has been acknowledged, but Prakṛti is described as functioning under the aegis of Parameśvara or Parama Puruṣa. Following Mahābhārata, in Bhagavadgītā it is also said that, Prakṛti is under Īśvara. Prakṛti creates the world with Īśvara residing upon it.

Without accepting the controlling power of Īśvara, it is not possible for acetana Prakṛti to create the world.In Sāṃkhyadarśana it is accepted that Puruṣārthatā is the cause of the union of Prakṛti, but in the śloka of Gītā it is said that, “I position myself in my Prakṛti and repeatedly create all the mortal beings according to their respective past deeds and nature–
prakṛtiṃ svāmavaṣṭabhya visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ.
bhūtagrāmamimaṃ kṛtsnamavaśaṃ prakṛtervaśāt.
In this śloka of Gītā, it is said that the origin of the process of creation takes place by the will of Parameśvara. In commentary of this śloka, Ācārya Śrīdharasvāmī has said–
nanvasango nirvikāraśca tvaṃ kathaṃ sṛjasītyapekṣāyāmāha prakṛtimiti dvābhyām svāṃ svādhīnāṃ prakṛtimavaṣṭabhya adhiṣṭhāya pralaye līnaṃ santaṃ caturvidhamimaṃ sarvaṃ bhūtagrāmaṃ karmādiparavaśaṃ punaḥ punarvividhaṃ sṛjāmi viśeṣeṇa sṛjāmīti vā. kathaṃ? prakṛtervaśāt prācīnakarmanimitta-tattat-svabhāvavalāt.

The process of the Nirākāra(Formless), Nirviśeṣa ( apparently without special personal attributes) Parabrahma’s becoming Saviśeṣa, Sākāra Iśvara is not very complicated. The creation of the universe, and its preservation and destruction cannot be the work of the Formless, attribute-less Brahman, and so Śankarcārya, who is the proponent of Jīva-Brahmādvaya, and that is ‘janmādyasya jātaḥ of Brahmasūtra– what he has made clear in the Śārīraka Bhāṣya of the second sūtra. Śankarācārya is of the opinion that the creation of the world and worldly affairs are controlled by Brahman with the help of Māyā.

The core message of Śrīdhara’s message is that, “I, residing in Prakṛti which is under myself, create in numerous forms these four kinds of creatures– svedaja, aṇḍaja, jarāyuja and udbhijja– that are dependent on other forces according to their karma and the providence attained by them, and those who get dissolved in pralaya. The speciality of this śloka of Bhagavadgītā is that, here Srī Kṛṣṇa as Parameśvara or paramapuruṣa refers to Prakṛti as ‘mine own’ — prakṛtiṃ svām. Just as in the previous śloka it is said that — at the end of kalpa, all beings get dissolved in my prakṛti and at the beginning of it, I create those beings.

Here, since he has identified prakṛti as his own śakti (prakṛtiṃ yānti māmikāṃ), the authority of ‘Puruṣa’ becomes all the more evident. From a theoretical perspective it can be said that in several places of Śruti and Smṛti, prakṛti is also the element and cause of the creation of the world. It is also the nimitta -kāraṇa,

In Śvetāśvetara Upaniṣad, in which lie all seeds of ancient Sāṃkhya, where Māyā is called Prakṛti or Upādāna, –māyāntu prakṛtiṃ vidyāt, and so prakṛti is considered as upādāna of ‘jagat’, and at the same time, in the famous ajā-śloka of the same Śvetāśvetara Upaniṣad, triguṇātmikā (with three attributes) Prakṛti itself is called the mother-creator ‘Jagat’, so prakṛti is the nimitta of creation.

The ‘prakṛtikāraṇatāvāda’ of Sāṃkhya becomes validated in this kind of thought and theoretical basis. But this is not the nature of Sāṃkhya in Mahābhārata.In Mahābhārata or Bhagavadgītā, Brahman or Paramapuruṣa is conceptualised as the greatest, so he is both the updāna kāraṇa and the nimitta kāraṇa of this world. Again, here comes the reference to Śvetāśvetara Upaniṣad. In the previous śloka, it is said, ‘māyāṃ tu prakṛtiṃ vidyāt’, and immediately before that ‘asmānmāyī sṛjate viśvametat’. lie

TranslaSvāmī Jagadīśvarānanda