But Brahman is greater than Jiva, because the scriptures declare His difference from the Jiva. — 158.

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COMMENTARY

The word «But» sets aside the doubt above raised. Brahman is greater than man, because He possesses vast power and consequently is something infinitely superior to man. The entering of the Brahman into the world which He creates is no bondage to Brahman, while the entering of man into the world, if created by the man himself, is a cause of bondage of man. The difference between man and God is distinctly taught in the scriptures.

Thus in the Mundaka Upanishad (III, 1. 2)

Though seated on one and the same tree, the Jiva bewildered by the Divine Power sees not the Lord and so grieves. But when he sees the eternally worshipped Lord and His glory, as separate from himself, then he becomes free from grief (and fit for Mukti).

This verse clearly shows the difference between the Jiva, full of sorrow and delusion, and the Supreme Self, full of great lordliness and glory.

So also in the Gita (XV., 16 and 17 verses):

There are two sorts of Jivas in this world, the bound and the free; the bound are all these beings, and the free are those who rest in the Rock of ages.

The Highest Purusha is verily Another, declared as the Supreme Self, He, who pervading all, sustained the three worlds, the indestructible Lord.

Similarly, in the Vishnu Purana (Book I, Chap. II, Verses 16 a 24):

He who is higher than matter (Pradhana), Jivas, manifested world and time, He is the highest Vishnu, about whom the scriptures declare: «The wise see the highest pure form of that Lord Vishnu». Matter and Jiva are distinct from Vishnu though they are also two aspects of Him. That aspect by which the Lord brings about the union of spirit with matter, at the time of creation, and their separation from each other during dissolution, is called Time. (Thus the supreme Vishnu has four aspects, the root of matter called Pradhana, the root of spirit called Purusha, the manifested universe called Vyakta and the time called Kala).

Similarly, in the Bhagavata Purana:

This is the glory of the Lord, that His devotees, though plunged in all-defiling matter, are not defiled by its contact, nor bound by her energies, because their mind is always refuged in the Lord.

Moreover, in the sutra I., 2. 8, it has been shown that the Lord though living in the world and in the Jivas is not tainted by this contact Thus the Lord possessed of inconceivable and infinite power creates the world by His mere will, enters into it in order to sport in it, and with it; and when it begins to decay, He destroys it and rejuvenates it, just as a spider. By such a creation, etc., of the world, there does not accrue to the Lord the slightest taint.

An objector says: Man and God are, however, one in essence, the difference between them is that of degree alone, just as the difference between the space confined within a jar and the infinite space outside it. Space is one and not different. To this we reply, it cannot be so, because we do not admit that the supreme Brahman is liable to division or limitation like space (we cannot cut off a portion of Brahman and say, — the so much is Jiva and the other is Lord). Nor is the Jiva and Brahman related like the reflection of the moon in the water and the moon in Heaven. «Reflection no doubt does not possess all the glory and the perfection of the original, and man being a reflection of God is lower than God, but essentially the same». But we do not admit this, because the Lord being formless, it is impossible that there should be any reflection of Him. Reflection can be of matter only, no one has ever seen the reflection of spirit The third illustration, given by the Advaitins, that of the king’s son, is also inapt. A king’s son brought up among the shepherds, considered himself so and never knew his lineage. Once a wise man passed that way and told him, Thou art not a shepherd’s child but the son of the king’. No sooner had he heard it than his delusion vanished and he realised his own greatness. Similarly, so long as man is overpowered by ignorance, he thinks himself man, but when knowledge comes, he knows that he is God. To this we reply, that God being one according to this theory, and man being essentially God, the delusion which a man is under must be the delusion which affects God, and thus it detracts from the Omniscience and Omnipotence of God. There existing no other being but God, the ignorance which makes man think himself separate from God, and a distinct individuality, must be an ignorance indwelling in God Himself. God is thus subject to delusion and illusion.

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