1. COOPER, JOHN M., ed. 1997.Plato: Complete Works, 880–889. Indianapolis: Hacken. An important and complementary vacana is number 313 where union with Siva is recalled in a manner akin to Socrates's epistemology in the Mena. In both cases, reincarnation is presupposed, and true knowledge is believed to be embedded in the soul before a person is incorporated in a body. In gaining a body, the human being is unable to immediately recall any part of true knowledge previously held as pure spirit. Knowledge may only be teased out of one's soul by directing one's mind toward the true, usually with the aid of an enlightened assistant: for Socrates, the assistant was dialectic and, for us, we have Mahadevi's vacanas to raise the matter to our attention and Siva to 'show us his ways', to paraphrase 313. (See 'the Mena' 81a-89d in
2. BILLINGTON, RAY. 1997.Understanding Eastern Philosophy, 3041London: Routledge. In this light, Mahadevi is in keeping with Ramanuja's rejection of Shankara's doctrine that brahman was impersonal and without particular qualities. Against this view, Ramanuja said that brahman was personal and had qualities (saguna). It is less clear that Mahadevi closely resembles Ramanuja's philosophy in other areas, such as his teaching that individual selves are a distinct personality and eternal after liberation (of course, aside from Ramanuja's embrace of the Shri Vaishnava movement). (See
3. The Personhood of Śaṁkara's "Para Brahman"