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The goal of all life is being liberated from the cycle of birth and death, which itself amounts from trying to become something one thinks one is not, finding oneself limited and wanting to remove that limitation by expanding his horizons. The issue with this is that it is a never-ending pursuit of a limited person trying to become limitless. The only way limitlessness is possible for "any" entity is if that entity is already limitless. And since the scriptures say that this liberation is possible, it means that this entity is already limitless and never did really become limited. This limitless brahman which finds itself limited is called as jIva and such limitation is nothing but a misunderstanding. Any misunderstanding can go only through knowledge and therefore, the entire pursuit of jIva becoming brahman is removal of ill-founded notions of limitation.
Since a limited entity can never become limitless, this erroneous conclusion of limitedness must have been due to taking something that potentially limits, so to say. That world outside is the insentient appearance of the existent reality, out of which a part is carved out as one's own body, which as-though limits the limitless. This limitation is also experienced due to the overwhelming tending-to-infinity-universe outside oneself. This insentient body makes brahman jIva. brahman associated with the entire universal body is Ishvara. So then, who is it that needs liberation? A seeker of liberation is not brahman, which is already infinite, ever-liberated, and doesn't need liberation. Ishvara is associated with the universe and cannot be limited as there is nothing outside of Him limiting Him. The jagat is insentient out of which a tiny part is one's own body! This entity which has managed to entangle itself with the miniscule part of its own appearance, owing to not knowing its true nature and erroneously knowing itself as limited, called as jIva, is the seeker. So although the same brahman appears as jIva, jagat and Ishvara, only the jIva is interested in mokSha, which is why he is the one who needs to know that everything, other than his own true nature as limitless brahman, is mithyA, a mere appearance of HimSelf.
That is why the scriptures focus only on the perspective of the seeker jIva telling him that what is not I, meaning brahman, meaning limitless existence-consciousness-bliss, is all part of jagat and mithyA. Just by saying everything is brahman, nothing is achieved because limitlessness itself means there being no second entity as there cannot be two infinites. The very idea of second, limited or limitless, makes the other finite! Yet, there can be a finite or an tending-to-infinite appearance, a mere imagination, based on error. That appearance itself cannot be called as brahman since it has no basis of existence as its substratum is brahman. A thing not-truly-existent that appears to be existent, cannot even appear but for its truly-existent basis, akin to snake-appearance on rope. The snake is nothing but rope, but the rope isn't snake, meaning that it isn't limited to appear as snake, as it can appear as a stick, a streak on ground, stream of water, etc. On the other hand, the jnAnI knows jIva is brahman whole and brahman as jIva, as the carved part of the jagat is no longer limiting his unlimitable nature!
Finally, let me deal with an objection that seems valid: if brahman is one without a second, either both jagat and jIva should be called as brahman or both should be termed as mithyA; jagat should not be called as mithyA while jIva is called as brahman. Jagat is mithyA since it is an appearance of brahman. Again, brahman with tAdAtmyasambandha/ identification with a part of this apparent jagat is called as jiva. No one defines brahman as jagat with an upAdhi/ adjunct. jagat itself is the limiting adjunct, else there would be no jIvatva or Ishvaratva for brahman. And precisely why, a part of Bhagavatpadacharya's well-known verse refutes this objection clearly: ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्या जीवो ब्रह्मैव नापरः। To avoid such misunderstandings, the Advaita Vedanta tradition necessarily teaches what is the meant by mithyA before teaching that everything is brahman. This is also why opponents of Advaita Vedanta do not understand the siddhAnta.
ॐ तत् सत्।
