Spinoza and Shankara: When God Became the Universe and the Self Became God


What if the philosopher Spinoza and the sage Shankara had met?
Both, separated by continents and centuries, spoke of one ultimate Reality—an infinite, self-existent essence that manifests as all things. Spinoza called it God or Nature; Shankara called it Brahman. One reasoned his way to unity, the other realized it through inner awakening. In both visions, the world is not separate from the Divine—it is the Divine, appearing in countless forms. To see this is to be free, to live it is to be blissful. The rest—names, forms, selves—are but waves on the same ocean.