My thoughts turn east

Bhaskara, an Indian living in the 8th and/or 9th century, maintained (against other Indians of the Vedic tradition before him) that the world in which our physical manifestations live and suffer is a reality, not or not entirely an illusion.

Recently, in a book about the history of Indiian philosophy, I encountered the following explanation of Bhaskara's view on the nature of the human soul. The soul is not in reality different from God. Our individual souls are but his parts, as the sparks of a fire are but parts of the same fire.

So God is real, our souls are real because they are of God, their separateness is at least in a qualified sense real (a single spark does fly off on its own trajectory), and the world in which they live is real. Realities abound.

Taken together these are the characteristic positions of the Bhedābheda Vedānta, one of several traditions within Vedānta, one that is said to seek a balance betwen monism and dualism.

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