  “The entire complex of intelligent and non-intelligent beings (souls and matter [prakriti]) … is real and constitutes the form, i. e., the body of the highest Brahman” (Ramanuja 1962, 88). The space-time world with all it contains is thus related to God as our bodies are related to our souls. A soul-body relationship, according to Ramanuja, is a relationship between (1) support and supported, (2) controller and controlled, and (3) “principal” and “accessory.” (Images of the last relationship are provided by the relations between a master and his “born servant” or an owner and his disposable property.) A body is “entirely subordinate” to its soul (Ramanuja 1962, 424), having no independent reality or value. If the space-time world is Vishnu’s body, then, it is absolutely dependent on Vishnu, and has little or no value in comparison with him.