or Brahman, then Iswara himself is also merged in Brahman, and there remains no Personal God. In Bengal Vaishnavism, which is also essentially monistic, though its monism is not the same as the monism of the Samkara- Vedanta school, Purusha and Prakriti are one and the same, but they are differentiated in the creative process for purposes of Leela. This self-differentiation is an assumption as by different characters in a stage play. In this sense the personality of God comes very near the conception of personality in Chris- tianity itself. Persona means a mask in Latin, and the Divine Personality is, therefore, something which is assumed, or a mask put on, by the Absolute for the same objects as in Vaishnavism, namely, the self-differentiation of the Absolute for the realisation of conscious- ness or self-realisation. Differentiation necessarily implies integra- tion. The Sport or Leela of the Lord, which is the very plinth and foundation of the phi- losophy and art of Bengal Vaishnavism, is, therefore, an eternal process of differentiation and integration, the Prakriti separating Herself from the Purusha and eternally stri- ving to be re-united to Him. This is the
