Moon is One, Reflections are Many

Sri Tandavaraya Swami

Disciple:

O Master, you who are formless (transcendentally) function as Ishwara (cosmically), and appear in human form (here)! You speak of a jnani and Ishwara as the same. How can that be so?

Master:

Yes, Ishwara and the jnani are the same because they are free from 'I' and 'Mine'. The jnani is himself Ishwara, the totality of the jivas and also the cosmos.

Disciple:

Lord, if as you say he is all jivas when is liberated, how can others remain bound? If the jivas are said to be diverse, he cannot be all. All-knowing Master! please answer me this question in detail.

Master:

The Self, which shines forth as 'I-I' in all, is perfect and impartite. But jivas are as diverse as the limitations in the form of ego (make them). Look how the moon, who delights the world, is only one, whereas her reflected images are as many as there are ponds, pools, tanks, streams, cisterns and pitchers of water. Where one of them is destroyed, the image is no longer reflected, but is reabsorbed in its original, namely the moon. It cannot be so with the other reflected images. In the same manner, the jivas whose limitations are destroyed is withdrawn into its source, the self; others not.