From Rāmānuja’s commentary
How, we ask, can any one assert that bondage
is something false, unreal?
Jīva
RāmānujaViśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta
Interpretation
The individual self, really distinct from Brahman yet inseparably dependent upon and related to Brahman, as body is to Self. An agent and enjoyer whose experience of pleasure and pain in transmigration is real, not illusory. In the dream-state discussion, the jiva is the proposed (but ultimately rejected as sole) creator of dream-objects.
Related Brahman · Rāmānuja, Īśvara · Rāmānuja
Related sūtras
Where Rāmānuja’s commentary grounds this interpretation. Open a sūtra to read the commentary context.
From Rāmānuja’s commentary
'The creation in the intermediate state' is due to the individual soul only
From Rāmānuja’s commentary
The latter also, indeed, fundamentally possesses that power
it is then incapable of accomplishing such wonderful creations
From Rāmānuja’s commentary
Owing to the wish of the highest, i. e. the Supreme Person, the essential nature of the individual soul is hidden
From Rāmānuja’s commentary
the soul is unable to create, in dreams, chariots, lotus tanks, and so on, by its mere wish