1. Indian Pantheistic Monism

Believe me, my son, an invisible and subtle essence is the Spirit of the whole universe. That is Reality. That is Atman. THOU ART THAT. —The Chandogya Upanishad[p 44] [p 45] Historical introduction We are about to study Indian pantheistic monism as interpreted by the famous Indian philosopher Shankara,1 but first some necessary, preliminary observations. In some languages the term 'Hinduism' is used as if it were an adequate label to denote the religion believed and practised by the people of India. But in this sense it is a misleading label. In the first place there are other religions native to India: Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. In the second place, if we do use the term 'Hinduism' to refer to Indian religion, then we should be aware that Hinduism is not one homogeneous religion with a central creed laid down by some religious authority, like the Magisterium in Roman Catholicism or the Ecumenical Councils acknowledged by the Orthodox Churches. There are many forms of Hindu religion, each concentrated on the worship of its favoured god, gods or goddesses (there are traditionally said to be 330 million gods, or 300 or 30—in other words it does not matter how many), though some g...