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The Philosophy of Vijñāna Bhikṣu
[ch.
The Individual.
In his commentary on the Isvara-gītā, Bhikṣu says that the more universal has a wider sphere than the less universal and therefore it is called Brahman in relation to it. The cause of an effect is wider and more universal than the effect and is therefore called Brahman in comparison with it. Thus there is a hierarchy of Brahmans. But that which is at the apex of the hierarchy is the highest universal and the ultimate cause, and is therefore called the highest Brahman. Brahman is thus the highest and the ultimate reality. The determinations that make the universe of matter exist in Brahman as merged in its nature as thought. Creation means that these determinations which exist there in a potential form and without any operation are manifested and made operative as the world of nature. God in His nature as pure consciousness has a full and complete acquaintance of all the possible developments and modifications of the pre-matter as evolving into the actual universe. The starting point in the evolution of the pre-matter or prakặti is the moment of its association with the spirits. The scriptural text says that the Lord entered into the prakrti and the puruṣas, disturbed the equilibrium and associated them with one another. The purusas are, however, like sparks of consciousness and it is not possible to produce any disturbance in them. The disturbance is thus produced in the prakrti and the effect of such disturbance in the prakrti on the purusas is interpreted as seeming disturbances in the purusas as well. The purusas are to be conceived as being parts of God and there cannot be a real identity between the puruṣas and the Brahman. The so-called identity between the puruṣas and the Brahman refers merely to the fact of the purusas being the constituent entities in the being of God such as that which exists between the parts and the whole. The assertion of the Sankarites that the individual soul is the same as Brahman and that the difference is due to external limitations of nescience or on account of reflections through it is wrong. The kind of unity that exists between the individual souls and the Brahman lies in the fact that they are indistinguishable in character from it (avibhāga). If the reality of individual souls is denied, that would amount to a denial of religious and moral values and of bondage and emancipation.