If it be asked how then that (illusory duality) is predicated, the answer is that in reality there is a non-duality, that is in reality, Vishṇu being better than all else, has no equal and no superior. Accordingly, the grand revelation:-- "A difference between soul and the Lord, a difference between the unsentient and the Lord, "A difference among souls, and a difference of the unsentient and the soul each from the other. "Also the difference of unsentient things from one another, the world with its five divisions. "This same is real and from all eternity; if it had had a beginning it would have an end: "Whereas it does not come to an end; and it is not illusorily imagined: "For if it were imagined it would cease, but it never ceases. "That there is no duality is therefore the doctrine of those that lack knowledge; "For this the doctrine of those that have knowledge is known and sustained by Vishṇu." The purpose, then, of all revelations is to set out the supreme excellence of Vishṇu. With this in view the Lord declared:-- "Two are these persons in the universe, the perishable and the imperishable; "The perishable is all the elements, the imperishable is the unmodified. "The other, the most excellent person, called the Supreme Spirit, "Is the undecaying Lord, who pervading sustains the three worlds. "Since transcending the perishable, I am more excellent than the imperishable (soul), "Hence I am celebrated among men and in the Veda as the best of persons (_Purushottama_); "He who uninfatuated knows me thus the best of persons, he all-knowing worships me in every wise. "Thus this most mysterious institute is declared, blameless (Arjuna): "Knowing this a man may be wise, and may have done what he has to do, O Bhárata" (Bhagavad-gítá, xv. 16-20). So in the Mahá-varáha-- "The primary purport of all the Vedas relates to the supreme spouse of Śrī; "Its purport regarding the excellence of any other deity must be subordinate." It is reasonable that the primary purport should regard the supreme excellence of Vishṇu. For emancipation is the highest end of all men, according to the text of the Bhállaveya Upanishad: While merit, wealth, and enjoyment are transitory, emancipation is eternal; therefore a wise man should strive unceasingly to attain thereto. And emancipation is not won without the grace of Vishṇu, according to the text of the Náráyaṇa Upanishad: Through whose grace is the highest state, through whose essence he is liberated from transmigration, while inferior men propitiating the divinities are not emancipated; the supreme object of discernment to those who desire to be liberated from this snare of works. According also to the words of the Vishṇu-puráṇa--