Differences

The distinction between knowledge and ignorance starts with the hymns of the RigVeda, where knowledge means being conscious of the Truth and what is right, and ignorance is being unconscious of the Truth and what is right, opposing it and creating false or negative effects.

The Jivas are distinct from God and matter. According to Madhva, the difference between Brahman and Jiva is real.

Avidya is a form of Prakriti that obscures the spiritual powers of the individual soul, forming a veil that hides the Supreme from the individual's vision.

That knowledge which perceives in all beings separate realities of various distinct kinds — know that knowledge to be rajasic.

There are two kinds of beings in this world — the divine and the demoniac. The divine has been described at length; hear from Me now about the demoniac, O Partha.

Everyone follows their own imagined path; the endless variety of misdeeds cannot be put into words.

The person who accurately knows the names of the unmanifest, the qualities, and their pure operations, is well-versed in the truth about all distinctions, freed from the body, liberated from all qualities, and enjoys absolute happiness.

The collective is a mass that forms and takes shape, while the individual is the one who discovers truth, creates form, and brings things into being.

In summary, the method for achieving world peace involves each individual practicing constant self-reflection and following the golden rule of 'live and let live'.

A sacrifice stripped of prescribed rite, without food offering, without sacred chants, without fees, and devoid of faith — that is declared to be tamasic.

Even the food that everyone prefers is of three kinds. Likewise sacrifice, austerity, and charity are each threefold. Hear now these distinctions.

Those of sattva worship the gods; those of rajas worship yaksha and rakshasas; others — those of tamas — worship ghosts and spirits.

Food that is stale, flavourless, putrid, leftover, and impure — the food left after others — is dear to those of tamas.

Foods that are bitter, sour, excessively salty, very hot, pungent, dry, and burning — these are desired by those of rajas and bring pain, grief, and disease.

In just this way the individual self of the wise one dissolves into the Supreme Self. Day and night, everywhere and always, the wise one delights in that Oneness.

Just as water merges into the ocean, milk into milk, and clarified butter into clarified butter; just as the space within a broken pot merges into the open sky — so does the individual self merge into the Supreme Self.

Salutations to the Guru — by whose knowledge the universe is no longer seen as fractured into separate parts, who is ever one, whose form is forever the same undivided wholeness.

The Guru is not separate from the self that knows — this is truth, truly the truth, beyond all doubt. Therefore the wise must earnestly strive to attain that realization.

The complete individual is the cosmic individual, as only when we have taken the universe into ourselves and transcended it can our individuality be complete.

The individual must stand out, affirm their unique existence within the larger whole, and allow their mind to emerge from the common mindset, just as their body has developed its own distinct character within the shared physical realm.