The One Appearing as Many — Part III

Whenever righteousness is on the decline and unrighteousness is on the rise, I body myself forth.

Closeup of Vishnu, seated in the lotus position on a lotus. Source: Wikipedia

The appearance of individuality gives rise to the assumption that existence is divided into separate beings. Each person experiences the world from a unique perspective, possesses a distinct history, and occupies a particular position within the unfolding of events. From this arises the conviction that consciousness belongs to the individual and that awareness is contained within the boundaries of the body and mind.

This assumption appears self-evident, yet it conceals a fundamental misunderstanding.

The underlying reality cannot be divided into parts. That which is truly indivisible cannot be fragmented, distributed, or partitioned among separate forms. If the ground of existence is one, then no being can possess only a portion of it. The whole must be fully present wherever it appears.

The relationship between the individual and the underlying reality is therefore not that of part to whole, but of appearance to essence. Each being is a local expression of a universal presence that remains complete within every form. The apparent differences between individuals arise from the structures through which this presence is expressed, not from any difference in the presence itself.

The light entering a small room is no less light than the light entering a great hall. The difference lies not in the light, but in the capacity of the structure to reveal it. Likewise, awareness is neither greater nor lesser from one being to another. What varies is the degree to which awareness becomes conscious of itself through the mind-body complex.

Most forms express awareness only partially. Their attention remains occupied by survival, desire, memory, fear, and attachment. Awareness illuminates these experiences, yet remains hidden behind them. The individual lives, acts, suffers, and strives without recognising the source from which experience arises.

If manifestation served no purpose beyond appearance, existence would be an endless procession of forms arising and dissolving without meaning. Worlds would emerge, lives would unfold, and experiences would accumulate only to vanish again into silence. The cycle would continue indefinitely, producing movement but no culmination. In such a universe, awareness would express itself through countless forms yet never come to recognise its own presence within them.

The purpose of manifestation is not merely the production of experience. Experience alone accomplishes nothing. The significance of manifestation lies in the possibility that awareness may come to know itself through the very forms it animates.

Drawing of sleeping Narayana on Sheshanaga while the four-headed Brahma springs from his navel. Source: Wikipedia

As experience accumulates across countless manifestations, understanding gradually deepens. The mind-body complex becomes increasingly capable of reflecting awareness without distortion. Knowledge expands beyond information and belief, becoming direct insight into the nature of existence itself. What was once fragmented begins to move toward coherence.

At a certain point, a profound transformation becomes possible.

Awareness no longer identifies exclusively with the individual perspective through which it is expressed. The apparent division between self and world, observer and observed, begins to dissolve. Yet this is not a return to undifferentiated unity, nor a withdrawal from existence. It is the emergence of a state in which manifestation becomes fully transparent to its own ground.

In this condition, awareness recognises itself completely within form, the song of becoming hears itself, and the undivided becomes luminous.

Rama holding arrows, early 19th century depiction. Source: Wikipedia

Such a being represents the highest possibility inherent within manifestation; the embodied summit of knowledge, the moment when divinity recognises itself. The purpose of existence is fulfilled, not because the world has been escaped, but because the source of the world has become fully conscious of itself through a living form.

In this culmination, all divisions find reconciliation. The countless streams of experience that once appeared separate are understood as expressions of a single movement. Nothing is rejected, and nothing is lost. Every struggle, every birth, every joy and sorrow becomes intelligible as part of a larger unfolding whose aim was always recognition.

Because no attachment remains, action leaves no residue. Because no separate identity is maintained, experience creates no further momentum. The forces that sustain recurring manifestation no longer find a centre through which to continue. The cycle reaches completion naturally, not through destruction, but through fulfilment.

What remains cannot be described as an individual, yet neither is it mere dissolution. It is awareness fully revealed within existence and no longer limited by it. The journey of becoming reaches its conclusion in the recognition of what was present from the beginning.

Krishna lifting Govardhan Hill; folio from the Harivamsa (Mughal, c. 1590). Surce: Wikipedia

Manifestation achieves its highest expression when awareness becomes conscious of itself. Beyond this point, nothing remains to be attained, for the purpose of the cycle has been fulfilled.