“Vishva-moortir-maha-moortih deepta-moortir-amoortiman |
Aneka-moortir-avyaktaha shata-moorti shata-nanah”
– a revered hymn that lists the thousand names of Lord Vishnu in Vishnu Sahasra Nama-

The name “Avyaktaha” (also sometimes used as “Avyaktah”) in the Vishnu Sahasranama holds profound significance, symbolizing the unmanifest, formless, and invisible aspect of the Divine beyond human perception. This concept of the Divine challenges the limitations of human language and cognition, emphasizing that the ultimate reality cannot be fully grasped or expressed through words.

Whenever I contemplate the divine essence that underlies this world, I am consistently struck by its vastness and profound depth. As life’s experiences accumulate over time, we often develop a mindset that this expansiveness is beyond our understanding. In such moments, I found that the term Avyaktah from the Vishnu Sahasranama helps encapsulate this complex state. It also holds true that a fragment of this divine essence exists within each of us. Like a drop in the vast ocean, every living being carries a piece of this divinity. It is this fragment that sustains our life, and when it ceases to exist, the body follows death.

If this divinity is omnipresent and omnipotent as well as being within us, why is it that we don’t easily experience it? Why do many of us not even feel the need to seek this experience? The answer I arrived at is that around this fragment of reality, there is the physical body, the senses, and the mind—elements that create their own protective systems. These systems are essential for survival, an inherent part of life’s evolutionary path. The body, in its need to safeguard itself, has developed mechanisms to remain secure in its environment, relying on external influences to maintain its survival. In this process, the awareness of the divine essence faded into the background, and it was deemed no longer necessary.

Now, what has happened is that this divine reality, Avyaktaha, has been confined within us by layers of hard walls that we ourselves have built. As a result, at this stage of human evolution, we struggle without being aware of our true essence (reality). We have forgotten that we built these walls, and this lack of experience creates a sense of emptiness.

For many, this emptiness has become unbearable. There is now a growing desire to reconnect with the fundamental reality. If you feel this way too, let’s take a step toward this unmanifest reality, Avyaktah. Let us make a commitment to experience it. Together, we can guide each other toward this divine essence and break free from the constraints that keep us from experiencing it.

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