Transcendental and Immanent forms of the Supreme for our comprehension
While the Supreme in Its Transcendental existence is not comprehensible except by intense meditation and intuitive knowledge of the Sages, the merciful God takes the cosmic form for the benefit of the devotional prayers of Its creations and also to perform the activities in the universe. One should not be misled by the impersonality of the Absolute in its transcendent nature. He is the ultimate principle, the real self in each of us and is as well as the God of worship. The Supreme is at once the transcendental, the cosmic and the individual reality. In Its transcendental aspect, It is the pure self, unaffected by any action or experience, detached, unconcerned. In Its dynamic cosmic aspect, It not only support but governs the whole cosmic action and this very Self which is one in all and above all is present in the individual (Brhadaaranyaka Upanishad, III, 8, 12.)

The Upanishads support the view that the Supreme Divine participates in nature and give us a God who exceeds the mere infinite and the mere finite. The seers of the Upanishads look upon the world as meaningful. It is the only place where we can exhaust our individual karmas, as we travel along the spiritual road of evolution towards unity with the Divine. While the Vedas recognize the Supreme as the Formless Paramatma and describe various divine forces as Devathas, the Agamas explain the nature of cosmic forms that the Divine takes for the understanding of the individual. While many with imperfect knowledge may confuse this as multiple gods of a polytheistic faith, one should get some amount of intuitive knowledge to realize the multiple cosmic form of the Divine whom the Vedas, Agamas and all ancient texts explain again and again as One and only one without a second. One has to recognize the difference between the various manifestations this Cosmic form who are complete and absolute and the various Devathas who also have some Divine aspects as much as all humans and all the creations have a part of this Divine aspect inside each individual souls as Jeeva or life.

In the potential or Tanscendant form It is Nirguna Brahman, that is Divine without attributes or forms. In the dynamic cosmic or immanent form, in the Devotional and Agamic traditions of Hindu Dharma, Supreme Divine is explained as Saguna Brahman. Some Devotional followers do not recognize the Nirguna Brahman but call both as Savisesha Brahman. The major sects of Hindus in their faith address this form with different names; Saivites call this form as ParaSiva or Parameswara; Sakthas call this in the female form as Parasakthi, Lalitha, Parameswari or in several other names; Vaishnavites call this Narayana or Maha Vishu. They all address the same "One Supreme God" in Its Cosmic or Transcendental form. Smarthas who follow the Vedic rituals call this as Paramathma or Parabrahman.

All followers of Hindu Dharma recognize that this Supreme Divinity, at this level manifests Itself and creates the various forms, to perform the universal activity of creation, protection, dissolution, and also gives its grace of love and a play as the five major activities. It also creates the forms to give knowledge to learn, wealth and prosperity as also energy, power and strength for protection. Thus, all segments of the Hindu society recognize the next level of manifestations of the Divine as Brahma the creator, Vishnu the protector and Siva the dissolver [do not be confused with the similarity in names]. Then they also form as their consorts, Saraswathi for knowledge, Lakshmi for wealth and Durga or Ambal for power and strength. Then we have the mythological stories that explain various subsequent incarnations or manifestations at every age for the protection of the pious, destruction of the evil and for the establishment of Dharma or righteous rules.