Śivasaṃhitā 1.47

Non-duality as a cosmic constant. This verse establishes a fundamental asymmetry: unity is permanent, diversity is temporal. The reality of the multiple in ordinary experience is not denied, but its provisional condition is pointed out. The universe of forms has a beginning and end; the formless background has none.

The verb bhāsate (shines, appears, manifests) is crucial: unity always shines; multiplicity sometimes shines. Abheda (non-difference) and vastubheda (object-difference, multiplicity) are the two poles of conscious experience. The Śivasaṃhitā places phenomenal difference in the order of what ceases, not in the order of the eternal.

This verse functions as a direct response to Indian pluralist philosophies—Sāṃkhya, Nyāya, Mīmāṃsā—that affirm the permanent reality of the multiple. The Śivasaṃhitā adopts here the strictest non-dual position: multiplicity is real as appearance (vivarta), but not as substance (vastu). Unity is the only reality that does not need to be sustained.