Bhagavad Gita; Or the Lord's Lay

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Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The apparent existence of many egos or spirits is due to the operation of a power called Falsehood. It is called a power because it depends necessarily upon the Spirit of God, which remains unchanged in the midst of the operations of this power. It is called Falsehood because it is not the Spirit of God, which is the only Reality; yet it is not altogether unreal, because it invests with seeming reality that which is nothing, since it is not the Spirit of God. In a sense it is not a negation, and yet is devoid of community of nature with the Spirit of God. For this reason it is called Falsehood, or Lie. A lie is not an utter negation, because it concerns some reality. This creative power is called Falsehood because it produces the appearance of many egos, whereas in reality the Spirit of God is the only ego.<br><br>The supreme end of existence is the change produced in man's nature by the power called Right Knowledge. This change shows the seeming independent reality of the Self within man to be due to the power called Falsehood. In truth, it is the shadow of the one and only reality, the Spirit of God, and has no more independence of being than a shadow can have. The shadow has no being independent of the substance; nor has the self in us a being independent of the true Self, which is the Spirit of God.<br><br>The shortest way of stating the relation is this : the spirit in the individual is really identical with the Spirit of God. It is eternally identical, and the statements in the Scriptures as to individuals becoming the Supreme Spirit are figurative. The essence of this system is the denial of real existence to the individual spirit, and the insistence upon its true identity with the Spirit of God.<br><br>Ramanujacharya teaches that the Spirit of God is the only reality, and shares community of nature with nothing. Conscious and unconscious nature are the two eternal powers of the Spirit. Consciousness, unconsciousness, and t