Text 8]
Mohini-mūrti Bewilders Lord Śiva
107
and the soul is considered spiritual. The origin of them both, however, is the same Supreme Personality of Godhead. As the Lord explains in  Bhāgavad-gītā  (7.4–5):
bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā
apareyam itas tv anyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat
“Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—all together these eight comprise My separated material energies. But besides this inferior nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine, which consists of all living entities who are struggling with material nature and are sustaining the universe.” Thus both matter and the living entities are manifestations of energy of the Supreme Lord. Since the energy and the energetic are not different and since the material and marginal energies are both energies of the supreme energetic, the Supreme Lord, ultimately the Supreme Personality of Godhead is everything. In this regard, the example may be given of gold that has not been molded and gold that has been molded into various ornaments. A gold earring and the gold in a mine are different only as cause and effect; otherwise they are the same. The  Vedānta-sūtra  describes that Brahman is the cause of everything.  Janmādy asya yataḥ . Everything is born of the Supreme Brahman, from which everything emanates as different energies. None of these energies, therefore, should be considered false. The Māyāvādīs’ differentiation between Brahman and  māyā  is only due to ignorance.
Śrīmad Vīrarāghava Ācārya, in his  Bhāgavata-candra-candrikā , describes the Vaiṣṇava philosophy as follows. The cosmic manifestation is described as  sat  and  asat , as  cit  and  acit . Matter is  acit , and the living force is  cit , but their origin is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in whom there is no difference between matter and spirit. According to this