So there are two ātmās, namely ātmā and Paramātmā. This is explained in the Upaniṣad, that "There are two birds on one tree. This tree is this body, and the two birds, one is ātmā and the other is Paramātmā." So one bird is simply witnessing what the other bird is doing, and the other bird, jīvātmā, he is eating the fruit. So therefore Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that,
- īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
- hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati
- bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni
- yantrārūḍhāni māyayā
- (BG 18.61)
That īśvara, that Paramātmā, is sitting also within this body, but He's observing what the jīvātmā wants to do. According to that, He is supplying a machine. This machine means this body, yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. This machine is manufactured by the external energy, māyā. So therefore we are jīvātmā; we are different from the Paramātmā. Those who are equalizing Paramātmā and jīvātmā, they are not in perfect knowledge. Either purposefully they are misleading, or they do not know the perfect knowledge.
At the present moment this danger is there in a very large quantity. People are thinking wrongly that they are also God, as good as God. In the Bhagavad-gītā the statement is, Kṛṣṇa says, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). Jīva-bhūta is the living entities. "They are My part and parcel." So it is an axiomatic truth: part is never equal to the whole. Āṁśi. So just like this finger is the part of my body, but it does not mean the finger is the whole body. Therefore there is distinction between Brahman and Parambrahman, īśvara and Parameśvara, ātmā and Paramātmā. So īśvara means controller, one who controls, but Parameśvara means the controller of the controller. That is explained in the Brahma-saṁhitā, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Īśvara... All of us may be īśvara. I am īśvara amongst my disciples. You may be īśvara amongst your family members. But none of us is Parameśvara. So this mistaken knowledge is very much spread at the present moment. So our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is specially meant for removing this misconception of understanding God and the jīvas. So our first principle is that we have to discard or disregard the persons who are very much anxious to establish that īśvara and Parameśvara, or the living entity and the Supreme Person, they are equal. We do not support this theory.