Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 15, Verse 17: Krishna to Arjuna — Puruṣottama-Yoga
But there is a third, the highest Person, called *Paramātman*, who enters and sustains all three worlds while remaining inexhaustible, the eternal Lord.
Bhāṣyakāra purports
- Śaṅkaraadvaita
The uttama-purusa (supreme person) is entirely other than both — not merely different in degree but atyanata-vilaksana (absolutely distinct in kind) from all body-bound and ignorance-constructed selves. Called Paramatman in the Vedanta-s, this one enters the three worlds by its own caitanya-bala (power of pure consciousness) and sustains them by the sheer fact of its svarupa-sadbhava (self-luminous being) alone — not by effortful action. It is avyaya (inexhaustible), for no diminution is conceivable in pure consciousness; it is Isvara (omniscient Narayana), and this very one reveals itself as the uttama-purusa whose glory the name Purusottama declares.
- Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita
The uttama-purusa is arthantara-bhuta (a categorically different reality) from both the ksara — bound jiva-s (conscious beings in samsara) — and the aksara — liberated jiva-s. All three orders of loka-traya are known from pramana: the acetana (insentient), the cetana bound to acit, and the mukta (freed). This uttama-purusa enters all three as their very atman and sustains them; because he is both vyapaka (pervasive) and bhartavya-bharta (the sustainer distinct from the sustained), he is necessarily other than them. Being avyaya (immune to the decline that acit and samsara-tainted cit undergo) and Isvara (controller), he is arthantara from even the liberated — truly Paramatman as every sruti declares.
- Madhvadvaita
Among the ksara (jivas from Brahma downward), the aksara (Prakrti, the kutastha), and the third — the Uttama — the sruti-s themselves testify: 'prajapati-pramukhah sarva-jivah ksaro'ksarah puruso vai pradhanam / tad-uttamam canyam udaharanti jala-jalam matarisvanam ekam' (Sarkaraksa-sruti as cited by Madhva). The supreme Purusottama is that matarisvan, the single and unparalleled, praised as uttama — eternally and ontologically superior to both categories of finite beings. The jiva's dependence on Hari is absolute; no merging of identities is admissible.
- Vallabhaśuddhādvaita
- Śrīdharabhakti
This uttama-purusa is vilaksana (distinguished) from both ksara and aksara: from the ksara (acetana, insentient) he differs by being Atman of all beings; from the aksara (the conscious enjoyer) he differs by being parama (supreme). The sruti-s name him Paramatman precisely because both differentiations hold simultaneously. As Isvara — iksana-sila (whose nature is to govern) — and as avyaya (without modification), he enters and sustains the entire loka-traya. Knowing him thus is the goal for which both ksara and aksara were described in the preceding verses.
- Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti
The uttama-purusa is untouched by the defects of both upadhi-s — neither the jadya (inertness) of ksara nor the limitation of aksara taints him; he is the nityasuddha-buddha-mukta (eternally pure, awakened, free) third caitanya-rasi who illuminates both. The Vedanta-s name him Paramatman because he surpasses all five avidya-kalpita kosas (from annamaya to anandamaya) and stands as 'brahma-puccham pratistha' — pure, uncreated consciousness. Entering the three worlds by his own maya-sakti, he sustains them by granting satta (being) and sphurti (luminosity); as avyaya Isvara — Narayana, controller of all — this one alone is Purusottama.