Duality-in-Non-Duality

The difficulty Dwaitadwait resolves is an old one in Vedantic thought: what, precisely, is the relationship between the Jiva — the individual soul — and Jagdish, God, understood in this tradition as Yugal Bihari Shri Radha Krishna? Advaita Vedanta answers that the two are, at the deepest level, identical. Dvaita Vedanta answers, conversely, that the two remain eternally and irreducibly distinct. Nimbark Bhagwan's contribution was to refuse the choice — Dwaitadwait holds that the Jiva is svabhavika-bhedabheda with Brahman: naturally and simultaneously different and non-different.

And the Jagat — the created universe — occupies its own place within this triad: a real and meaningful manifestation of Brahman's own power, neither illusion to be dismissed nor a wholly separate creation standing apart from its source. World, soul, and God together form a single, coherent, three-fold reality.

The classical analogies used to render this teaching accessible are themselves centuries old, and no less illuminating for their age: