Brahman
is described as the impersonal absolute Existence or Godhead, the all-pervading
transcendental Reality; God without attributes, God beyond all description.
Ishvara is the name given to Brahman with
attributes; the Personal God. The
three aspects of Ishvara which have been personified are Brahma the Creator,
Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer.
In the words of Vivekananda, Ishvara is “the highest possible reading of
the Absolute by the human mind.”
Vivekananda’s
comment is telling. For a religion to go
from a religion of the few, of the priests and intellectuals, to a religion of
the masses, it must translate such abstractions
as “absolute Existence or Godhead,” “all-pervading transcendental
Reality,” “God without attributes,” to something more readily grasped by the
person on the street.
Hence
Ishvara, who is a kind of being, who creates, maintains, and dissolves the
world, and does so in the guises of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.” For the average
person, it is easier to cultivate devotion to Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva than to
an abstract principle.
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