Śivasaṃhitā 1.86

The ontology of reflection: the things of the world are not nothing, but neither are they completely nothing. They are like the reflection of the sun in water—they are not the sun, but neither are they independent of it. This middle position—neither full existence nor total inexistence—is Advaita’s sophisticated ontology against the extremes of nihilism and naïve realism. The yogi who understands this stops fighting against the world.

The verse articulates three levels: the real (sat), the reflected (pratibimba), and the purely unreal (asat). The things of the world are pratibimba—reflections—not pure asat. Mahāmahimā (the One of great glory, the supremely glorious One) is the only one that fully exists. Tātkālikaṃ (for the moment, temporarily) indicates that the apparent reality of things is provisional, not permanent.

Durgā as a manifestation of tamo-guṇa—the quality of inertia, darkness, and density—has deep logic in Tantric theology. Tamas is not simply negative: it is the potency of radical transformation, the force that destroys the obsolete to permit rebirth. Durgā is not the goddess of death but the goddess of deep transformation that appears as death from outside.