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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
The Vaisnava Saints of
www.kobatirth.org
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4 Ibid. p. 784.
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
of milk apart from its milky-whiteness. Thus, God the Absolute cannot be thought of apart from the God with attributes, i.e., Personal God, and vice versa. The distinction between the Brahman and S'akti is really a distinction without a difference. Brahman and S'akti are one, just as milk and the whiteness of milk are one. Brahman and S'akti are one, just as gem and its brightness are one. One cannot be conceived without the other.... Wherever there is action, preservation, and destruction- there is S'akti. Water is water whether it is calm or disurbed. That one Absolute Existence-Intelligence-Bliss is the eternal intelligent Energy that creates, preserves, and destroys the universe....' The two are the two aspects of the same thing viewed differently. Thus, he regards that the actionless Brahman and the active S'akti are in fact one and the same. He further calls the Absolute Existence-Intelligence-Bliss as the All-knowing, the All-intelligent, and All-blissful Mother of the universe.2 It is further said that the Brahman or God is the inactive Puruşa and the active Prakṛti, both at the same time. Water is water whether it moves or is still. A snake is a snake whether it wriggles along or stays still and coiled up.3 The two aspects Nitya (permanence) and Lilā (change) belong to the same God. In one form He is the Absolute, and in another the Lila. Even though the Lila is destroyed, the Nitya always exists."
1 Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna, 856, 857, 858. 2 Ibid. 855.
741
3 Nikhilananda Swami (Tr.): The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna,
p. 819.
For Private And Personal