THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

372 The Harmony of Virtueplaymates of God able to suspend and renew the game whenwe will. It is by realising our oneness with the akØara Purushathat we get freedom from ignorance, freedom from the cords ofdesire, freedom from the imperative law of works. On the otherhand, if the akØara Purusha were all, as the Sankhya philosophycontends, there would be no basis for different experience,no varying personality, every individual existence would be preciselylike every other individual existence, the development andexperience of one soul in Nature an exact replica of the developmentand experience of another soul. It is the kØara Purushawho is all creatures, and the variety of experience, character anddevelopment is effected by a particular part of the universal svabhÀvaor nature of conscious existence in phenomena, beingattached to a particular individual or jÈva. This is what is meantby saying that it is a part of God which becomes the jÈva. ThissvabhÀva, once determined, does not change; but it manifestsvarious parts of itself, at various times, under various circumstances,in various forms of action and various bodies suited tothe action or development it has to enjoy. It is for this reasonthat the Purusha in Nature is called kØara, fluid, shifting, althoughit is not in reality fluid or shifting, but constant, eternal and immutable,sanÀtana. It is the variety of its enjoyment in Time,Space and Causality that makes it kØara. The enjoyment of theakØara Purusha is self-existent, beyond Time, Space and Causality,aware of, but undisturbed by the continual multitudinousflux and reflux of Prakriti. The enjoyment of Purushottama isboth in Prakriti and beyond it, it embraces and is the reality ofall experience and enjoyment.Development is determined by the kØara Purusha, but notconducted by him. It is Prakriti, the Universal Energy, that conductsdevelopment under the law of cause and effect and is thetrue agent. The soul is not the agent, but the lord who enjoysthe results of the action of his agent, Prakriti or nature; only byhis attachment to Prakriti he forgets himself and identifies himselfwith her so as to have the illusion of agency and, by thusforgetting himself, ceases to be lord of himself, becomes subjectto Causality, imprisoned in Time and Space, bound by the workwhich he sanctions. He himself, being a part of God, is made in