186 Teachings of Lord Chaitanya

ship with the Supreme Lord. It is concluded, therefore, that the living entities
represent one of the energies of the Supreme Lord. Such an infinitesimal part
and parcel of the Supreme Lord is called Jiva. If the Jiva is artificially put onto
the same level with the infinite Supreme—because both of them are Brahman,
or spirit—that will certainly lead to bewilderment.

The Mayavadi philosophers are perplexed before a learned Vaishnava
philosopher because the Mayavadi cannot explain the cause of bondage of the
living entities. They simply say: “It is out of ignorance,” but they cannot
explain why the Supreme is covered by this ignorance. The actual solution
is that the living entities, although qualitatively one with the Supreme are
infinitesimal, and are not infinite. Had they been infinite there would not have
been any possibility of being covered by ignorance. But, because the living
entities are infinitesimal, they are covered by another, an inferior, energy.
We can see their foolishness and ignorance when they try to explain that the
infinite is covered by ignorance. It is an offensive attempt to qualify the infinite
as subject to the spell of ignorance.

Sankara, although he attempted to cover the Supreme Lord by his Maya-
vadi philosophy, was doing so only by the order of the Supreme Lord. It
is to be understood that his teaching was a timely necessity, but not a per-
manent fact. In the Vedanta Sutra this distinction between energy and the
Energetic is accepted from the very beginning. In that Brahma, or Vedanta,
Sutra the first aphorism, Janmadyasya, is a clear explanation that the Supreme
Absolute Truth is the Origin or Source of all emanation. Therefore the
emanations are His energy, whereas He is the Energetic. Sankara has falsely
put his argument in this way: that if the transformation of energy is accepted,
then the Supreme Absolute cannot remain immutable. But that is not true;
in spite of unlimited energy being generated, why not accept that the Supreme
Absolute Truth remains always the same, even though there is the emanation
of unlimited energies from Him? Sankaracharya has therefore incorrectly
and wrongly established the theory of illusion.

In this connection Ramanujacharya has discussed the point very nicely
as follows: “If you argue that before the creation of this material world there
was only one Absolute Truth, then how is it possible that the living entity
emanated from Him? If He was alone, how could He produce or generate the
infinitesimal living entities?” In reference to this question the Vedas state that
everything is generated from the Absolute Truth, everything is being main-
tained by the Absolute Truth, and, after annihilation, everything enters into
Him. From this statement of the Upanishads, it is clear that the living entities
