The Pilgrim is face to face with the 3 Pilgrims, which he knew always existed but feared facing them to make a choice for only one. He grew up with some, he gave birth to some, he nurtured some and he always wanted to find one.
The one he thinks he is. Driven largely by Ego and his experience, this virtual existence only exists in the Pilgrim’s mind. All his actions are directed towards making this existence as real as possible, but as Nature would have it, being confined to an individualistic existence & tormented by the body-mind complex, this existence gets more and more difficult with each passing day to keep up with.
With a focus on name & fame, money & power, this existence is often defended as necessary to keep the materialistic game up in society. It is driven by one’s perception of what others would like him to be. Having very little idea of the Truth, this perception continues to change, sometimes so drastically that it could drive one to the verge of madness.
There is a nice story in the Indian philosophical literature that such an image is often necessary to keep the unfavorable people at a distance. The story is about a snake who was asked by it’s preceptor to hiss but not bite its victims. That way, it stays away from hurting others but at the same time, keeps other’s away from it.
The one he thinks he wants to be. This existence has as much truth to the Pilgrim as much as dream experiences are as real as waking experience. This existence is often called the mind-child. Influenced by past lives (if you believe in this), personal experiences and intelligence, the mind creates a mental set of traits and personalities that he subconsciously wishes to be endowed with.
According to non-dual philosophies, this mind-child, when influenced by purity of the mind & heart, and when nurtured by Knowledge, could slowly lead to making a pure man. Now that could take several lifetime, several cycles of births and deaths, but would eventually, with a lot of self-effort, create a perfection so pure that an incarnation will be born.