The Gita sensitises one to experience oneness in diversity for only in variety does the concept of equal vision become meaningful. The equality of vision or Sama Drishti emphasised in the Gita is not to see all objects and beings as equal, but knowing that these exist as manifested only because the superior power of the Paramatma exists equally in all of them, pointed out Swami Ramakrishnananda in a discourse. This reconciles one to the truth that the divine and the gross coexist as the manifestation of the Paramatma.
Krishna refers to the divine element as Purusha and the gross or material as Prakriti and that a proper knowledge of these is itself a valid means to pursue the highest goal, liberation. Right from the outset, the teaching focuses on the dichotomy between the atma and the body, and He impresses on Arjuna about the uniqueness of the immortal nature of the atma. In every birth, the atma gets associated with the body comprising the senses, gunas, etc, that are all born of Prakriti. Though these cannot affect it, the jivatma develops ahamkara and mamakara bhava and begins to experience joy and sorrow, owing to the closeness with the body. This gives rise to the confusion about of the identity of the self.
There is a rope but then a serpent is seen in it and this is believed to be true. This is symbolic of the delusion, ignorance or ajnana that prevents one to see beyond the world of variety and change. When with the help of light or some other means it is made clear that there is only the rope and no serpent at all, then all the hue and cry the imagined serpent had caused ceases to exist.
Tirumoolar explains this truth about the Paramatma through the analogy of a wooden elephant. A child sees the elephant in it but the father knows it to be mere wood.
