its karma. Unlike the Semitic religions, e.g., Abrahamic religions, which believe that God created the soul and the world out of 'nothing,’ Ramanuja believed that creation is an eternally recurring cyclic process; hence, God is free from the responsibility of starting it and causing the evils accruing from it. Instead he believed that karma, the result of the actions of Jivas (souls) in previous embodiments, causes the good and evil, enjoyments and sufferings of karma which have to be necessary to be enjoyed or suffered by the Jivas themselves who are responsible for the fruits. Although souls alone have the freedom and responsibility for their acts and thus reap the fruits of karma, i.e., good and evil karma, God as Vishnu, is the supreme Enforcer of karma, by acting as the Sanctioner (Anumanta) and the Overseer (Upadrasta). According to Ramanuja, all jivas are burdened with their load of Karma, which gives them only enjoyments and sufferings, but also desires and tendencies to act in particular ways; although the moral responsibility accrues only to the Jiva, as he acts according to the tendencies and deserts he has acquired by his karma, Ramanuja believes that God wills only their fructification. According to the foregoing concept, God is "compared to light which may be used for forging or for reading scriptures," but the merits or demerit "devolves entirely on the persons concerned and not on the darkness." Furthermore, Ramanuja believes that Vishnu wishing to do a favor to those who are resolved on acting so as fully to please Her, engenders in their minds a tendency towards highly virtuous actions, such as means to attain to Him; while on the other hand, in order to punish those who are resolved on lines of action altogether displeasing to Him, He engenders in their minds a delight in such actions as have a downward tendency and are obstacles in the way of the attainment of God. Madhva (Dvaita) Madhva, the founder of the Dvaita school, another sub-school of Vedanta, on the other hand, believes that there must be a root cause for variations in karma even if karma is accepted as having no beginning and being the cause of the problem of evil. Since jivas have different kinds of karma, from good to bad, all must not have started with same type of karma from the beginning of time. Thus, Madhva concludes that the jivas