That is to say, like a man who in svapna regards himself to be an independent king, the Chidatman, the self-conscious Self, becomes Isvara, having subjected all external beings to his own control, and regarding Himself as the independent Lord of them all. Similarly, the Jiva state of the Atman is illustrated as follows:

17. then being defeated by the enemy, he goes to the forest and practises penance; in one short hour, he imagines himself to have lived for a long period;

That is to say, Atman is regarded as Jiva when he is under the control of another, and seeks unattained objects of desire.

18. so also, in jagrat state, he imagines a fancied world of his own; he is not aware of life coming to an end in the swift current of Time.

19. Like the sun veiled by the cloud, Paramesvara, the Supreme Lord Himself, quite deluded by Maya, appears to be of limited power and limited knowledge.

Isvara is Himself called Jiva when subject to the control of Maya. There is no independent entity called Jiva.

20. Whenever one does or knows a thing independently by one's own power, it is then that Paramesvara is said to be a king, a sage, a lord.

Thus the question as to what is meant by Isvara and Jiva has been answered. Atman becomes Isvara and Jiva by Maya. He is said to be Jiva or Paramesvara under certain conditions, but not in Himself.

Isvara is the Self in all.

21. All Jivas are endued with intelligence and activity, because they are one with Siva. Because Jivas are endued with

the powers of Isvara, we may conclude that they are (identical with) Isvara.

Intelligence activity, jnana and kriya, are found associated with Jivas because these are identical with Siva, the Paramatman who alone has the power of knowing and acting quite independently of all. A mass of iron is said to burn only when regarded as identical with the fire burning in it. All Jivas being thus identical with Isvara, He is said to be Sarvatman, the Self in all.

Isvara's consciousness is one and self-luminous.

22. In all our cognitions of external objects, such as are expressed in the words 'this is a pot,' 'this is a cloth,' it is the consciousness, forming the very nature of the Self, which manifests of itself, like the sun's light.

23. If consciousness were not self-manifested, then the universe would be blind darkness.

Isvara's activity.

If there be no activity whatever in Him, how can any one be spoken of as the doer of an act?

Though formless, Isvara must possess activity inherent in Him, inasmuch as He is spoken of as the Creator, etc. What sort of activity it is, is explained in the next verse:

24. Activity, which is either motion or change of condition, becomes manifested as an offshoot of consciousness moving towards the external.