process cannot be broken up at any particular point. Nor can there be any consciousness except in and through this process. Therefore, when integration is reached, con- sciousness also necessarily ceases. But the Absolute is eternally self-conscious. Absolute Consciousness can never cease. This is the Yaishnavic position. Integration, therefore, means, as has been already said, pralaya. The Samkara-Yendanta takes a static view of the Absolute, and, therefore, conceives this integra- tion or pralaya as the real state of the Abso- lute. The Vaishnava-Vedanta of Bengal conceives the Absolute not merely in its static aspect but also equally in its dynamic aspect. Differentiation and integration are not com- plete in themselves. They arc both links in the chain of consciousness. Differentiation and integration ai*e both essential elements or moments of the Absolute Consciousness or Brahman. As in the reality of the Absolute there is this eternal differentiation and inte- gration, so also in Divine worship there is always this consciousness of difference between the worshipper and the worshipped. The Bengal Vaishnava does not aim at complete merging of the worshipper with the Object of his worship. He, therefore, says that even if
