Shri Maharaj Ji further ahead becomes more specific about the forms of God, but initially he's just saying, “Brahm, the supreme Divine power, that's one entity, one Tatva. The second is jeev, all the souls. And the third is maya, the material energy.”
Jeev, like God, is chetan (conscious), whereas maya is jaď (inert). So, God and souls are sajātīya. They're grouped together. Maya is left out. That's why maya is even called bahirangā shakti - bāhar (outside). Because it doesn't share any of God's qualities. In fact, you can say it's the opposite, not in a bad way, it's just what it is. Everything about God is permanent. Everything about maya is temporary. If you go to the Divine world, everything over there is stable. There's no shrishti and pralaya (dissolution) in the Divine world. It's just there - always has been, always will be. The forms over there don't degrade.
Like here, our body from the moment we're born, it's degrading. You build a building, you don't realize it maybe for the first couple of years, but it's degrading. After 20-30 years, then you realize how much it's degraded. Everything you make, you create a pot. That pot is particle by particle, molecule by molecule, disintegrating every moment. That's the nature of the world.
Whereas the nature of God and the Divine world is that everything is perfectly stable. There's no degradation, there's no death. In that way, maya is pretty much the exact opposite of God. God is chetan, whereas maya is insentient, lifeless. We're more like God than like maya. Although you can say both of us, jeev, we are Shri Krishna's power, and maya is Shri Krishna's power. So, in that way, we're like maya, but that's it. The rest, we're more like God. We're a living being just like Him. We're a limited living being. He's unlimited. But still, we are vijātīya (different) with maya and sajātīya (similar) with Bhagwan.
But Bhagwan is the shāsak (ruler) of both of these powers. Maya can't do anything on its own. The universe can't come into being on its own, even though the material is ready to go. Maya is the material that the universe is made of. It can't make itself. It's just sitting there inert. God activates it, then the universe takes form. And when He withdraws His power, the whole thing reverts to a dormant, subtle energy. And souls, also without God's presence within us, we also wouldn't even exist. We wouldn't be alive. Our existence and our being alive never began. God has always been here, but our existence is dependent upon Him. So, He is supreme, and jeev shakti, maya shakti, those are His dependent powers.
His third power is described in the next Doha.
सर्व शक्ति स्वामिनि गोगिन्द राधे । एक शक्ति परा अन्तरंगा बता दे ।
Sarva shakti Swamini Govinda Radhe, Ek shakti parā antarangā bata de.
There is one power called parāshakti. This is the boss, the ruler of all powers. This parāshakti is synonymous with God. Not like maya shakti, which is opposite from God or souls which are somewhat like God, but still we're called tatasthā shakti. We're in between. Like you have the river, you have the forest, and you have the bank of the river. If you're standing on the tat, the bank of the river, you're not in the river, nor are you in the forest.
