Making Space for God: Karma, Freedom, and Devotion in the Brahmasūtra Commentaries of Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and Baladeva

This chapter examines the portrayal of God (īśvara) and God’s relation to karma in the Brahmasūtra (BS) and in the commentaries by Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa. BS 2.1.33 famously asserts in response to an objection from an anti-theist that God’s creation is just play (līlā), a spontaneous activity that lacks any objective beyond itself. However, BS 2.1.34 states that God is dependent (sāpekṣa) on karma. This seems to be a contradiction. How can a spontaneous and free activity be restricted by karma? How can God be dependent on something outside of Himself? Does this mean that the God of Vedānta is not omnipotent? Though Śaṅkara and Rāmānuja approach this aporia only indirectly, Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa (eighteenth century CE) explicitly attempts to reconcile the tension between these two sūtras. He goes well beyond earlier Vedānta commentators’ portrayal of God’s activity by arguing that God does at times disregard worshippers’ karmic histories, and that in fact His willingness to disregard karma should be considered a virtue, not a defect.