[Śrī Śaṅkara told that this creation is mithyā, which does not mean non-existing. The world is inherently non-existent, but becomes existent by the existence of its creator, God, since God Himself has gifted existence to the world. Śrī Rāmānuja and Śrī Madhva told that the world is existent. Śrī Śaṅkara told that the world is neither existent nor non-existent.]

[The word ‘mithyā’ means the state, which is different from both existence and non-existence. This means that it is existent in some time and non-existent in some other time. Before the creation of the world, the world was non-existent. After the creation of the world by God, the world becomes existent due to reality of God, which is gifted by God to the world.]

[God created this world for His entertainment as said by the Veda (Ekākī na ramate sa dvitīya maicchat). If the world created by God is non-existent, it means that God is not having real entertainment since the world is unreal. This means that God is impotent to get real entertainment from the world. In such case, God is to be treated like impotent human being getting entertainment from the unreal-imaginary world created by the mind of the human being. Then, God becomes an impotent ordinary human being because God is unable to create real world to get real entertainment.]

[Therefore, since God is omnipotent, He created the world (which was unreal before its creation) and made it real by gifting His own absolute reality to the world to get real entertainment from the real object. This means that the world is unreal at one time and is real at another time. Such reality is called relative reality. If you ask us, “Tell Me in one word, whether the world is real or unreal”, it becomes impossible to answer. Reality or absolute reality means existence in all times.]

[Śrī Rāmānuja and Śrī Madhva declared that the world is existent because at present, we are in the world that is existent due to the gifted reality from God. Spiritual efforts must be put at present in the existing world and not in the past non-existent world. Hence, all the three divine preachers said the same philosophy since there is no contradiction among the three angles of view about the reality of the world.]

[Regarding the future state of this world, we cannot certainly say that the world will exist in the future because if God wishes that the world shall disappear forever, the world will become non-existent as per His wish. If God wants continuous existence of the world, it will happen so because in the intermittent dissolution also, the world exists in subtle state during the period of interval rest and is expressed again whenever God wants entertainment.]

[At present, all the souls must follow the philosophy of Shri Ramanuja and Shri Madhva, which is that the world is real for the soul. The soul shall not be confused into thinking that the world is unreal at present. Only when the soul is interested to know the reality of the world in past, present and future, then only the analysis of Shri Shankara is to be studied.]

[Even Śrī Śaṅkara told that the world is existent at present due to the gifted reality from God. Buddhists could not understand this concept of Śrī Śaṅkara due to their illusory knowledge. They sent an elephant towards Śrī Śaṅkara, telling that the elephant is unreal as per Śrī Śaṅkara. Then, Śrī Śaṅkara ran away from the elephant, telling them, “I told that the entire world was non-existent before the creation and in such case, as the elephant is unreal, My running away is also unreal!”.]

[The soul is also a part of the creation only. The soul is said to be the best part of creation or “Parāprakṛti”. Parā means the best part and Prakṛti means the world. Parāprakṛti is the awareness present in living beings. Whatever is told about the world, all that applies to the soul also, because the soul is a part of the world only.]

[Of course, the similarity is only in qualitative sense. If you take quantitative sense, the soul is a tiny part of the world. If you take a swan made of sugar candy, the whole swan is made of sugar and if you take its tiny part like nose or eye, it is also made of the same sugar. Hence, the total swan and even a tiny part of the swan are qualitatively one and the same. The difference between them is in quantity only. Hence, the whole and its part are qualitatively one and the same, whereas both differ quantitatively only.]

[Both in the world and in a human being, all nine parts of Prakṛti or creation exist commonly. One is Parā Prakṛti or awareness and the other eight are Aparā Prakṛti (five elements, mind, intelligence and basic ego. You must remember that the world is not only inert, but also has awareness that is functioning as mind, intelligence and basic ego). In the human incarnation, there are ten parts. Above the above-said nine parts, the extra 10^th part is the unimaginable God. The tenth part (Unimaginable God) is surrounded by the above-said nine parts of the world, which are called as “Navāvaraṇams” (which are introduced to you in the worship of Śrīyantra.]

[If awareness is taken as God, you cannot use the word ‘nine covering parts’ (Navāvaraṇams) because awareness is already existing as Parā Prakṛti, the ninth part. The covering nine parts are already told as the eight parts as Aparā Prakṛti and the 9^th part as awareness. When these nine covers are told, the covered item should be the extra 10^th part called the unimaginable God. If you say that awareness is God, the covered part, are you saying that the covering sheaths are eight only? Actually, nine covering sheaths (Navāvaraṇams) are told. Hence, by already mentioning nine covering sheaths as Navāvaraṇams, the tenth different item called God, who is different from awareness (awareness is already mentioned in nine Navāvaraṇams), must be realized. This 10^th item called God, along with the nine Navāvaraṇams, constitutes human incarnation alone and only nine Navāvaraṇams, including awareness, constitute the rest human beings.]

[The Veda says that the awareness is generated from food (Annāt puruṣaḥ). The eternal God cannot be generated from food. If you don’t continuously give food to a living person, the person dies and the awareness disappears. This proves that awareness is always generated from food. In death also, awareness disappears. God has no birth and death. Hence, God is totally different from the food-generated awareness, which is called as soul only.]

[The philosophy of Śrī Madhva, stating that the soul is not God, is always true. Only one case is an exception, which is the human incarnation like Krishna. Even Śrī Śaṅkara told about one soul to be God (Jīvo Brahmaiva) and not any soul other than a human incarnation like Krishna (Nāparaḥ). Even Śrī Madhva and Śrī Rāmānuja also agreed that a special human soul like Krishna is God. Krishna was born to human parents as a soul only and hence, He is externally a human being only.]

[If you say that miracles alone are the identification mark of God, you may say that God Rama is not God. But, God Krishna, a human incarnation, is the ocean of miracles. Hence, miracles are seen in human incarnation. God Rama did not do miracles because He wants to behave as an ideal human being so that He wanted to show the path to reach God, whereas Krishna behaved as God to show the nature of God. Even God Rama performed a miracle of converting Ahalyā, existing as a stone, into the original living being. But, in the case of an ordinary soul, even a trace of a miracle is not seen.]

[Miracles alone are not the identification of God because even demons can perform miracles. God is the embodiment of spiritual knowledge and the embodiment of love for devotees as per the Veda (Prajñānaṃ Brahma, Raso vai saḥ). This does not mean that God does not perform miracles. God also performs miracles as said by the Veda (Satyakāmaḥ…). The miracles are exhibited by God to protect real devotees having no aspirations. The miracles are done for exhibition by demons.]

[Like this, the world and the souls are created by God. God, the creator, differs from the world and the souls also. The only exception is human incarnation, who is none but the same unmediated-unimaginable God becoming mediated by a devoted and personally selected human being. The world and the soul are qualitatively one and the same except the difference in their quantities. World is infinite quantity, whereas the human being is a tiny quantity.]

Iti Śrī Datta Svāmi viracita Śrī Rājīva Gītāyāṃ Trimata Samanvaya Vicāra Yogo Nāma Prathamādhyāyaḥ।

[Like this, in Śrī Rājīva Gītā, composed by His Holiness Shri Datta Swami, the First Chapter called ‘The Association of Enquiry of the correlation of three Vedantic Philosophies’ is completed.]