  Venkatanatha (1268–1369) offers a different resolution. He does distinguish “the two [salvific] functions of the Lord and his consort,” the Lord being “depicted as the father who disciplines the sinner,” and Lakshmi as the divine mother who intercedes for him. The distinction between these functions is not absolute, however, for the divine consort merely “bring[s] out the ‘Lord’s natural compassion’ so that that compassion becomes the basis for the spiritual rebirth of the offending devotee” (Kumar 120–21). Moreover (and most important for our purposes), there is no real or ontological difference between the divine father and the divine mother. Lakshmi is an inseparable attribute of Vishnu. Since a substance and its inseparable attributes “share in the same essential nature,” and since one can’t understand a substance without understanding its “essential and inseparable attribute[s],” the Lord and his divine consort form “a single reality” (Kumar 146–7). Thus “‘whenever Bhagavan [i.e., Vishnu] is referred to, Lakshmi should also be considered as referred to,’” and when one offers oneself to either one is offering oneself to both since the deity to which one offers oneself “‘is single [though] it rests with two’” (Kumar 124). In short, Venkatanatha preserves monotheism by denying that God and his divine consort are ontologically distinct.