यदा भूतपृथग्भावमेकस्थमनुपश्यति | तत एव च विस्तारं ब्रह्म संपद्यते तदा || ३१ ||
yadā bhūta-pṛthag-bhāvam eka-stham anupaśyati tata eva ca vistāraṁ brahma sampadyate tadā
yadā—when; bhūta—of living beings; pṛthak-bhāvam—the separateness; eka-stham—as resting in one; anupaśyati—perceives; tataḥ—from that; eva—certainly; ca—and; vistāram—the expansion; brahma—Brahman; sampadyate—attains; tadā—at that time.
“When one perceives the diversity of all beings as resting in the One, and the expansion of all from That alone — then one attains Brahman.”
The two-fold vision: first, seeing all the diversity of beings as 'eka-stham' — resting in the One, having their ground in the one Brahman; second, seeing 'vistaram' — the expansion, the manifestation of all from that One. This double movement — many-into-One and One-into-many — is the complete vision of Reality. Ramanuja notes that this does not erase diversity but reveals its ground as unity. The many are real within the One.
In a quiet moment, expand your awareness to include the entire room, then the building, then the city, then the earth, then the cosmos. All of this is 'resting in One.' Then recognize that the same awareness that expanded to include all of it is not separate from it — it is the One in which all rests. This contemplation is not imagination but the closest approach to the direct recognition described here.