The functions of the body, the senses, the mind and the intellect, merged in the Supreme Self, never see the Supreme Self with differentiation.

The vṛttis—undulations of the mental field—are herein not obstacles but rather undulations of the ocean itself. Merged (līnāḥ) into the paramātman, they are not annihilated but rather are rendered transparent. Sāṃkhya describes the vṛttis as modifications of prakṛti; herein, Vāsiṣṭha transcends this duality: the vṛttis are the paramātman beheld from the perspective of individuality. ‘Differentiation’ (bheda) is the operation of ahaṃkāra—the principle of individuation—which cleaves the continuity of consciousness into seemingly autonomous fragments.