Sri Paramatma Sandarbha Of Jiva Gosvami

Paramātma Sandarbha is the third book in the series of six treatises called Ṣaṭ Sandarbhas or Bhāgavata Sandarbha. It is an elaborate essay on the nature of Paramātmā. The distinction between Absolute Reality’s manifestations as Paramātmā and Bhagavān is relatively unknown, even to specialists in the field of Vedānta. These two specific designations are often used synonymously to refer to a single aspect of the tattva. It was Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī’s genius to clearly define them and enumerate their characteristics and functions in detail. There is no other work in the entire gamut of Indian theological and philosophical literature that throws light on this subject so lucidly.
Paramātmā, also called Puruṣa, is akin to what people usually conceive of as God, the creator and overseer of the cosmos, whereas Bhagavān is God in His supreme transcendence, without reference to the phenomenal world — God in His own intrinsic being. Paramātmā is the regulator of the intermediary potency (taṭasthā-śakti) and the extrinsic potency (bahiraṅgā-śakti), otherwise known as māyā. He is never influenced by this extrinsic potency, even while present in the midst of it.
Among the four Sandarbhas that delineate the knowledge of sambandha, Paramātma Sandarbha is the most important because it analyzes the nature of the self and its conditioning by māyā.