For a Tãmasika, the various images and stories of the Avathãrãs and manifestations of God mentioned in the Ãgamãs and Purãnãs appear as grand imagination of old stories about some good people who lived and ruled on this earth. They often keep their understanding simple as a picture or an image in two and three dimensions. This is the representation of the transcendent Divine for them. They cannot go beyond this level of understanding and so worships with a blind faith. Some of them often remain as non-believers due to their lack of understanding the Truth. Often they refuse to analyze or understand the Truth.

The Rãjasika considers all the Avathãrãs in the Purãnãs as persons who lived in this world as community leaders or kings with Divine blessings or with supernatural powers and attained the superior position worthy of our worship. Only the Sãtvika with the superior knowledge of the Truth is able to comprehend the Immanent Supreme who makes the manifestations in various Avathãrãs in the Transcendent forms in the phenomenal universe with grace and compassion to uplift and bless the human soul.

A good example of this principle is seen in the Avathãrã of Sri Ayyappa or Dharma Sãstha, a popular Deity in the South India. He is believed to be a manifestation of the Divine principles of Sri Siva and Sri Vishnu. The story goes as a prince who lived in the most recent past, after the advent of the Islamic rulers. This was the time, when there was in-group fighting between the followers of the Saivite and Vaishnavite forms of Hindu religion. Some who tried to understand this sometimes said that it was an imagination of the people to show that Saivite forms and Vaishnavite forms are one and the same, just two aspects of Hindu faith.

The true knowledge of the Sãtvika will make them realize that the Divine Himself takes this Supreme form to establish the truth of the Unity of the two aspects of the faith, and that it is the ignorance that makes them fight. In all these, the human soul elevates the Self slowly towards the Supreme by following the proper path. It is the Upãthis and ignorance with the effects of Karma that binds the soul in its position. The Divine makes the various Avathãras to come down on this world to the lower levels of the human soul for their understanding at various levels. In this, the Divine comes to the level of understanding of the devotee, to bless him and protect him in the transcendent forms. Thus, the human soul or Jivãtma is able to understand the Supreme at the level of devotion that is within the scope of their understanding.