Text 31] Prahlada Pacifies the Lord with Prayers 235
phases of the time factor—present, past and future. Present, past and
future are one. Every day we can experience the time factor as morning,
noon and evening, and although morning is different from noon, which
is different from evening, all of them taken together are one. The time
factor is the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but the Lord
is separate from the time factor. Everything is created, maintained and
annihilated by time, but the Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead,
has no beginning and no end. He is nityah sasvatah—eternal, perma-
nent. Everything passes through time’s phases of present, past and
future, yet the Lord is always the same. Thus there is undoubtedly a dif-
ference between the Lord and the cosmic manifestation, but actually they
are not different. Accepting them to be different is called avidya, ig-
norance.

True oneness, however, is not equivalent to the conception of the
Mayavadis. The true understanding is that the differences are manifested
by the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The seed is
manifested as a tree, which displays varieties in its trunk, branches,
leaves, flowers and fruits. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has therefore
sung, kesava tuyd jagata vicitra: “‘My dear Lord, Your creation is full of
varieties.” The varieties are one and at the same time different. This is
the philosophy of acintya-bhedabheda-tattva. The conclusion given in
Brahma-samhita is this:

isvarah paramah krsnah
sac-cid-Gnanda-vigrahah
anddir ddir govindah
sarva-kdrana-karanam
“Krsna, known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal,
blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, for
He is the prime cause of all causes.” Because the Lord is the supreme
cause, everything is one with Him, but when we consider varieties, we
find that one thing is different from another.

We may conclude, therefore, that there is no difference between one
thing and another, yet in varieties there are differences. In this regard,
Madhvacarya gives an example concerning a tree and a tree in fire. Both
trees are the same, but they look different because of the time factor. The
