ABSTRACT
Although religious concerns are prominent throughout nearly all Indian metaphysics, the agnostic and atheistic character of much Indian religion has meant that there has been much discussion both about the existence of a Creator and about the validity of the arguments adduced for his existence. However, the notion that karma is self-operative is too deeply entrenched in Indian religious thought, for such arguments to meet with much agreement, and it is commonly urged that karma as an unseen force suffices to explain what would otherwise require an intelligent Creator. Madhva provided another variant, viz. that the orderly interrelation of selves in the world requires a Lord as coordinator, since if any one self had control over the others, others would have this power also, and the result would be chaos. However, it became fairly clear that arguments for God's existence could at best be a subsidiary means of persuasion, as Madhva held.
