[Ramanuja took the world as the external body of God and Madhva took the world as the shirt on the external body of God. The difference is that the bond between body and soul is strong, whereas the bond between soul and shirt is negligible and can be considered as non-existent. This difference is removed when both are correlated by saying that when even a liberated soul is detached from its body treating it as the shirt, can’t we think that God clearly treats His body as a detached shirt? Hence, there is no contradiction between the two since body and shirt stand as one only. Shankara is also correlated here because the real God is always detached from the illusory world.]

[Shankara told that the world is inherently unreal since it didn’t exist before its creation. He also accepted that the inherently non-existing world became existent due to the gifted absolute reality of God by God. Due to this, it is clear that if God withdraws His reality from the world or from an item of the world, the world or such worldly item will disappear immediately. The disappeared item can appear again as existent if God sanctions His reality to it. This concept is the background of the miraculous power of God exhibited as miracle by making something disappear or creating a new thing. Like this, once the miraculous power of God is accepted with logical background, we can easily say that the process of creation is unimaginable due to the miraculous power of God. This supports the creation of the world through the miraculous power of God and this is the supporting strength of the philosophy of Madhva.]

[In this way, all the divine preachers can be correlated in every point of their three philosophies. The Divine Preachers (Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva) are the incarnations of the Divine Trinity (Brahmā, Vishnu and Shiva). The Divine Trinity is the three incarnations of the same one God Datta. In this way also, we have to accept that these three Divine Preachers are one only and their philosophies are also one only. Through sharp logical analysis, we can find perfect unity in the three philosophies of the three Divine Preachers. We can find the unity among these three Divine Preachers also based on the unity in their individualities. Hence, there shall not be internal splits in the religion of Hinduism.]

[The soul is a tiny part of this infinite world and whatever points are discussed about the world, all such points apply to the soul also. When the world has independent separate status of existence, the soul also has independent separate status of existence. As the imaginable world is totally different from unimaginable God (unmediated or mediated), the imaginable soul is also totally different from God. Soul is neither God nor part of God.]

[In all the three philosophies of Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva, the referred soul in these three philosophies is an uplifted soul only and not an ordinary soul. Shankara referred to the human being that became incarnation, who is one with God. Ramanuja referred to the human being, who became a very top devotee becoming inseparable from God and part of God like the limb of the body. Madhva referred to the human being, who became topmost servant like Hanuman, who is separate and different from God Rama. Leaving these three categories of blessed souls, the fourth category of souls are ordinary human beings, who are not connected to God and immersed in worldly matters only. These ordinary souls are connected to their respective cycles of deeds and fruits only and not to God.]

[In none of the philosophy of these three Divine Preachers, an ordinary soul is mentioned. This means that any ordinary soul following these three philosophies will be uplifted to the categories of the blessed souls as mentioned by these philosophies. This means that an ordinary human being shall become a servant of God (Madhva), then a climax devotee (Ramanuja) and finally the human being-component of a human incarnation of God (Shankara).]

[The special point in Madhva-philosophy is that in the first stage, the practical devotion or ‘Prapatti’ or ‘Karma Yoga’ to be done by the soul as climax servant like Hanuman is given importance to receive the blessings of God. Madhva stressed on practical devotion, which is the proof of real theoretical devotion. Ramanuja mentioned theoretical and practical devotion as Bhakti, which is the only path to reach God. Shankara mentioned about the highest grace of God, which is the process of becoming human incarnation like Him, after which the true devoted soul (human being-component) is blessed with the divine knowledge (realization) that it is God. The human incarnation like Krishna said that He is God (Ahaṃ Brahmā'smi).]

[As proposed by some scholars, the sequence set in the Gita is Karma yoga – Bhakti yoga – Jñāna yoga. These are the three steps to attain spiritual knowledge from a human preacher and as per the above sequence, one has to please the human preacher through Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga to get spiritual knowledge (Jñāna Yoga) from him. After going to a human preacher or guru (who is a strict follower of Sadguru), the devoted soul must attain the divine knowledge of God, then develop devotion to God and finally, serve God with practical sacrifice. In this way, the initial path (Karma yoga – Bhakti yoga – Jñāna yoga) is with respect to the human preacher and the reverse of this initial path is with respect to God or Sadguru. Guru is human being and Sadguru is human incarnation of God. One can approach Sadguru also as Guru in the beginning for attaining the spiritual knowledge and then, the Sadguru shall be treated as goal or God. The Guru can never be the Sadguru since he may deviate from Sadguru at some places. The Guru can be treated as Sadguru provided the Guru strictly follows the spiritual knowledge of Sadguru without any deviation.]

[Guru is only guide, whereas Sadguru is both guide and goal. Guru also can be called as guide provided the Guru strictly follows the spiritual knowledge established by Sadguru without any deviation like a train following the iron railway line. If the Guru deviates now and then from Sadguru in the spiritual knowledge like a bus deviating its line on the road slightly to this side or that side, such a Guru shall not be approached for spiritual knowledge even in the initial stage also.]

[Awareness is better than inert item. Bliss is better than awareness and it is the best among the functional modifications of awareness like mind, intelligence etc. Among the non-inert items having awareness (like animals, birds, human beings etc.), human being is the best. Among the human beings (Puruṣas), human incarnation (Puruṣottama) is the best. If you separate the human incarnation as God from the world, human being is the best item among all the items in the entire creation. The awareness in a human being is the individual soul, which is called as ‘Parā Prakṛti’ (meaning the best part of the world).]

[It is already told that the best item of a certain category of items is called as Brahman. The Veda, life, mind, intelligence etc., are called as Brahman since they are the best items among their corresponding groups of items. For example, among the group of the scriptures, the Veda is the best item. Among all the items of the world (God is separated from world. God is the creator while the world is created.), soul is the best item and hence, the soul can be called as Brahman like other best items (food, life etc.). To differentiate creator-God from the best created items among their corresponding groups, God is separately called as ‘Parabrahman’ by Shankara instead of calling God as Brahman. Hence, the mention of Jīva as Brahman by Shankara is not wrong. It means that Jīva is Brahman being the best of all the items of the world and jīva is not Parabrahman since jīva or soul is not God. We should remember that it is the statement of Shankara only, which says that God is Parabrahman (Mauna vyākhyā prakaṭita Parabrahma tattvam… Shankara). Shankara also wrote that Brahman is God while writing commentaries on scriptures since the scriptures from the beginning used the word ‘Brahman’ for God.]

[Shankara told that soul is God (Jīvo Brahmaiva nāparaḥ) and here, He did not use the plural word ‘Jīvāḥ’ meaning all souls are God and deliberately used the singular word ‘Jīvaḥ’, which means that a very rear soul selected by God becomes human incarnation, which is God or Brahman (The word ‘Brahman’ was used for God in the scriptures.). This is one interpretation. The other interpretation is that jīva is Brahman in the sense that soul (Jīva) is the best item among all the created items of the world. Shankara also demonstrated practically that every soul is not God by drinking molten lead while other disciples could not drink the same molten lead.]

[First, Shankara told “I am Shiva” (Śivo'ham). The disciples also repeated that they are Shiva because they thought that since ‘I’ (the soul) is common between Shankara and the disciple, the disciple is also Shiva (Śivo'haṃ Śivo'ham). The king uses the word ‘I’ to indicate himself. A beggar also uses the same word ‘I’ to indicate himself. Since the word ‘I’ is common between the both, will the beggar become the king since the ‘I’ indicating awareness in both the king and the beggar is common? Hence, after drinking hot molten lead, which is impossible for souls, Shankara clearly stated that He alone is Shiva (Śivaḥ kevalo'ham). Even while writing the commentaries on scriptures, Shankara indicates God with the word ‘I’ (Asmat pratyaya) and indicates the disciple with the word ‘you’ (Yuṣmat pratyaya) meaning that He alone is in the incarnation of God Shiva and not the disciples or other souls.]

[Shankara told that the soul is the greatest and God is the greatest. Both are like the president of a village and the president of the country. In the former case, the power is limited to small place like a village, whereas in the latter case, the power is pervaded all over the country. Therefore, in a county, there are several village-presidents, but, there is only one National President. Similarly, there are several souls, but God is only one. This is the clear difference between God and soul. Brahman means the greatest power and this is common between both presidents. This is qualitative similarity. The quantitative difference is that the power of village-president is very small confined to a small village, whereas the power of the National President is very large confined to the entire Nation. Two items can be said as one item provided there is qualitative and quantitative oneness.]

[If you take a king and beggar, their external properties like strength of the body, clothes, jewels etc., differ from each other, whereas the internal awareness is one and the same between both. If you take God (Īśvara) and a human being (Jīva), there is similarity in external properties like the limbs of body made of inert energy etc., whereas there is difference between the internal structure because in Īśvara, there is Parabrahman in merged state, whereas in ordinary human being, Parabrahman is completely absent. This simile is between a dressed person and the dress alone without any person inside the dress!]

[If you analyze the human being, the external human body is made of five inert elements and the inner awareness is also a specific work form of inert energy generated in the functioning brain-nervous system only. Hence, body and awareness are completely inert energy only because matter and awareness are modifications of inert energy only. Therefore, the total human being in and out is just inert energy only. This inert energy or human being is compared to the mediated God called Īśvara, who is inside God and outside medium made of inert energy only. The essential comparison is between God + inert energy with inert energy only. Hence, God is different from soul. When we say that the king entered the palace, it does not mean that he entered an inert palace alone without any servants. The palace means that it is fully equipped with servants. The servants follow the king like inert statues resembling inert palace. Similarly, when God entered a selected human being, even the soul of the human being becomes inert like the inert body that is blindly following the wishes of God. It is said that God enters human body (Mānuṣīṃ tanu māśritam— Gita). It does not mean that God entered a mere inert human body. It means that God entered the human body associated with its soul.]

[The ignorant people speak oneness between mediated God and human being and they compare these two like two dressed persons, each having dress and dressed person. In human being, dressed person is taken as its soul and in mediated God, the dressed person taken is Parabrahman. In both cases, the external body is the same inert energy. This is not a correct comparision because in the case of mediated God or human incarnation, the Parabrahman is omnipotent, whereas the soul present in human being is impotent or little potent. Hence, the correct interpretation is that the human being (human body + soul) itself is the dress and the human incarnation is the dressed person along with dress. In human incarnation, God exists apart from the dress (human being). Therefore, human being is just a human being (dress), whereas human incarnation is God (dressed person) + human being (dress).]