EDUCATION (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Shankara teaches that the existence of the embodied soul (or jiva) is only apparent, and that the embodied soul is actually the product of nescience. The appearance of the soul is the effect of nescience, but actually the soul is nothing but Brahman (II, 3, 50).

Detailed explanation-2: -The reflection of Brahman is the Reflected Consciousness or the Jiva which just appears as sentient, but in reality is not. You as the subject, the Atman, the witness, can never see your original self, but only your reflection which forms in the mind, just as eyes can see everything except themselves.

Detailed explanation-3: -While Sankarā distinguished between Brahman and Ishvara, according to Rāmānuja, Brahman is the same as Ishvara (God). While, according to Sankarā, Brahman has no qualities, Rāmānuja attributes certain qualities to God. In Ramanuja’s account of God, we may notice three points of importance.

Detailed explanation-4: -Jiva (’a living being’) is the state in which purusha is bonded to prakriti. Human experience is an interplay of the two, purusha being conscious of the various combinations of cognitive activities. The end of the bondage of purusha to prakriti is called liberation or kaivalya (isolation).