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Īśvara

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions | 1997 | 572 words | Copyright

Īśvara (Skt., īś, ‘to have power’). The concept of a personal God as creator of the cosmos. In the Vedas, īśvara is the power of a ruler, hence divine power (Atharva Veda, 7. 102. 1) and thus (19. 6. 4) a title of Puruṣa as lord of immortality. In Advaita Vedānta, Īśvara is Brahman as Brahman is related to the manifest world of appearance. As, in effect, the personal god (i.e. the way in which God becomes personal to an individual), Īśvara evokes the attitude of bhakti (devotion).

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