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The Bhāgavata-purāṇa
[CH.
towards cosmical operation for the good of the individual selves. It is this cosmic knowledge of God that falls within the creative function of His power of māyā. This cosmic knowledge is again twofold-that which abides in God as His omniscience, His desire of creation, and his effort of creation (otherwise called time (kāla)); and that which He passes over to individual selves as their desire for enjoyment or liberation from their works (karma), etc.; these in their turn are regarded as their ignorance (avidyā) and wisdom (vidyā)1. Māyā according to this view does not mean ignorance, but power of manifold creation (mīyate vicitram nirmiyata anayā iti vicitrartha-kara-sakti-vacitvam eva), and therefore the world is to be regarded as a transformation of Paramätman (paramātmapariņāma eva)2. By the supra-logical power of God, He remains unchanged in Himself and is yet transformed into the manifold creations of the world. According to Jiva, pariṇāma does not mean the transformation of reality (na tattvasya pariṇāma), but a real transformation (tattvato pariņāmaḥ)3. The manifestation of God in Himself in His own essential power (svarūpa-sakti) remains however always untouched by His transformations through His supralogical māyā power unto the world. This does not mean that God has two distinct forms, but merely that what appears contradictory to our ordinary reason may yet be a transcendental fact; and in the transcendental order of things there is no contradiction in supposing God as unchanged and as at the same time changeable by the operation of His two distinct powers. Māyā in this system is not something unreal or illusory, but represents the creative power of God, including His omniscience and omnipotence, the entire material substance of the world in the form of the collocation and combination of the gunas, and also the totality of human experience for good and for evil in all its diverse individual centres of expression. But in spite of all these transformations and manifestations of Himself through His supra-logical power of māyā, He remains entirely complete and unchanged in the manifestations of His supra-logical essential power. On the one side we have God as the creator and upholder of the universe, and on the other we have the God of religion, the object of the mystic raptures of His
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2 Ibid. p. 247.
1 Sat-sandarbha, p. 244.
tattvato❜nyathā-bhāvaḥ pariņāma ityeva lakṣaṇam na tu tattvasya.
Sarva-samvadini, p. 121.
