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xxiv] Brahman, Paramātman, Bhagavat, Parameśvara 21 consciousness, being thus dependent on the self, expands and contracts in order to pervade the different bodies in which it may be operating at the time. Being thus different from God, individual selves, even in emancipation, remain separate and distinct. They are thus produced from the highest self (Paramātman or God), and they are always under His absolute control and pervaded by Him. It is on this account that God is called Paramātman as distinguished from individual souls (ātman). They are like rays emanating from Him and are therefore always entirely dependent on Him and cannot exist without Him? They are also regarded as God's disengaged power (tațastha-sakti), because, though they are God's power, yet they are in a way disengaged and separately situated from Him, and therefore they are under the delusion of God's other power, māyā, which has no influence on God Himself; and therefore, though individual selves are suffering under the blinding operation of ignorance (avidyā), the highest self (paramātman) is absolutely untouched by them. As individual souls are the powers of God, they are sometimes spoken of as identical with Him and sometimes as different from Him. Of these individual selves some are always naturally devoted to God, and others are dominated by ignorance and are turned away from Him; it is the latter that are the denizens of this world and suffer rebirth.
Māyā, the external power (bahiranga-sakti) has two functions, creative (nimitta) and passive (upādāna); of these, time (kāla), destiny (daiva), and actions (karma) represent the former, and the three guņas the latter. Individual selves contain within them as integral parts elements of both these functions of māyā. The creative function of māyā has again two modes, which operate either for the bondage or for the liberation of man. This creative māyā also typifies the cosmic knowledge of God, His will and His creative operations. Knowledge of God is also regarded as twofold
-that which is His own self-knowledge and which forms a part of His essential power (svarūpa-sakti), and that which is turned
1 tadiya-raśmi-sthāniyatve'pi nitya-tad-āśrayitvāt, tadvyatirekeņa zyatirekât.
Şat-sandarbha, p. 233. 2 tad evam saktitve'pi anyatvam asya taţasthatvāt, taţasthatvam ca māyāŚakty-atītatvāt, asya avidyā-parābhavādi-rūpeṇa dosena paramātmano lopābhāvāc ca. Ibid. p. 234.
3 nimittāmsa-rūpayā māyākhyayaiva prasiddhā Śaktis tridhā drśyate jñāneccha-kriyā-rupatvena. Ibid. p. 244.
