Recognition
The 112 Dhāraṇās
One method per verse, unranked and unsequenced — the first of them is the breath, and the operative verb throughout is *bhāvanā*, which is not imagination.
From verse 24 to verse 135 the Vijñāna Bhairava gives one hundred and twelve dhāraṇās — holdings, placements of attention. They are not staged. No sequence is prescribed, no qualification demanded, and no method is said to be better than another. The text's position is that one of them, entered fully, is enough.
What dhāraṇā means here
In Patañjali's eight limbs dhāraṇā is the sixth: binding the mind to one place, the preliminary to dhyāna and samādhi. This text uses the word differently and more radically. There is no ladder. A dhāraṇā here is a single placement of attention that, if it fully takes, is the recognition — not a rung towards it. That is why the hundred and twelve can be offered in any order to anyone.
Bhāvanā — the operative verbभावना
One verb governs the hundred and twelve, and English has no equivalent for it. It is bhāvayet — the causative of bhū, to be — literally "let him cause to become". Where a Sanskrit meditation manual would ordinarily say dhyāyet, "let him meditate upon", or cintayet, "let him think", this text keeps returning to a verb of making-be. The noun is bhāvanā, and translators reach for contemplation, cultivation, realisation, creative attention — each partial.
The distinction from imagination is the whole point. To imagine is to entertain what is not the case; the value of an imagined thing lies in its not being there. Bhāvanā is directed at what already is, and its work is to attend until what is already so becomes evident — which is why verse 25 says the interval vyajyate, "is made manifest", rather than jāyate, "is born". A practice of imagination would need a verb of production. Nothing here is produced.
Technically bhāvanā is a vikalpa — a thought-construct — deliberately deployed, and the school does not hide this. It is the mechanism of the śākta means as Recognition defines it: a pure construct set against impure ones and sustained until the constructing gives out. A bhāvanā that persisted would have failed; its measure is that it dissolves, leaving what it pointed at. Nor is the word confined to the practical section — verse 20 uses it for the highest condition of all, nirvibhāgena bhāvanā, contemplation without division. One term names both the beginner's attention at the breath and the state in which no one is attending: a claim about continuity, not a looseness of usage.
The first method is the breath
ऊर्ध्वे प्राणो ह्यधो जीवो विसर्गात्मा परोच्चरेत्। उत्पत्तिद्वितयस्थाने भरणाद्भरिता स्थितिः॥
The supreme, whose nature is visarga, rises as prāṇa moving upward and jīva moving downward. By holding at the two places where they are born, the state of fullness is attained.
Three things deserve notice. First, bharitā — fullness — is the word used at verse 15 for the unsayable state of Bhairava itself. The metaphysics of 14–21 and the practice of 24 are joined by a single term: what could not be pointed at has just been given a physical address.
Second, visarga is the sound ḥ, written as two dots, and it is the phonic emblem of emission — the supreme's outbreath into the world. So the breath is not an analogy for the supreme's activity. The text treats it as that activity, occurring in this body, now.
Third, and most practically: there is no breath control here. No ratio, no retention, no count, no effort of any kind. Attention is placed at utpatti-sthāna, the place of arising — the point where outgoing turns into incoming and incoming into outgoing. What is watched is the hinge, not the swing.
Verse 25 completes it by naming the two points: viyad-yugma, the paired voids — the space at the heart where the in-breath ends, and the dvādaśānta, twelve fingers outside the body, where the out-breath ends. And it specifies what to look for: anivartana, the not-turning-back, the interval in which the breath has stopped going out and has not begun coming in. The verb in the second line is vyajyate, "is made manifest", not jāyate, "is born". Nothing is produced at the pause. Something already the case becomes evident.
How the methods cluster
The hundred and twelve are not a miscellany. They group, and the grouping tells you what this text thinks a doorway is.
- Breath and the centresverses 24–34
- The two turning points; the dvādaśānta; the ascent of energy through the centres; the space of the heart. The most-taught group, and the one that connects the text to the whole svara literature.
- Void and spaceverses 35–50
- The interior of the body contemplated as empty; the skull as void; a wide cloudless sky; the darkness of a moonless night; the inside of a well looked into until the looking gives way. Emptiness here is not absence but unbounded room.
- Sound and mantraverses 51–70
- Anāhata, unstruck sound; the fading tail of a struck bell or a plucked string, followed until it is inaudible and then further; a syllable pronounced without its vowel; the humming praṇava prolonged past the point where the sound ends.
- Energy and the bodyverses 71–100
- Kuṇḍalinī as a thread of fire; the piercing of the centres; and the group that startles readers — sensation taken at full intensity as the doorway, including sexual pleasure, and including terror.
- The ordinary statesverses 101–135
- A sneeze. Terror. Hunger. The first instant of waking. The moment before sleep takes hold. Gazing over a wide landscape. The beginning of a yawn. Watching a swing's arc. The sight of someone you have longed for. This is the section that made the text famous, and it is the most radical part of it.
The centre, and its unfoldingमध्य · मध्यविकास
Madhya means middle, centre, the between — the most heavily loaded ordinary word in this literature, used at several levels at once and deliberately so:
- The suṣumnā, the central channel between the two lateral currents
- The pause between out-breath and in-breath; between two thoughts; between waking and sleep
- The present instant, between what is no longer and what is not yet
- And beneath these, saṃvit itself — the centre from which every polarity issues and into which it subsides
The unfolding of that centre is madhya-vikāsa, and Kṣemarāja (c. 1000–1050), Abhinavagupta's pupil, makes it the key to the whole practical teaching. In his Pratyabhijñāhṛdaya — twenty sūtras, the shortest complete statement of the doctrine — the seventeenth reads madhya-vikāsāc cid-ānanda-lābhaḥ: from the unfolding of the centre comes the attainment of the bliss of consciousness. The eighteenth then lists the means, and the list reads almost as a table of contents for the Vijñāna Bhairava:
विकल्पक्षयशक्तिसंकोचविकासवाहच्छेदाद्यन्तकोटिनिभालनादय इहोपायाः
vikalpakṣaya-śaktisaṅkoca-vikāsa-vāhaccheda-ādyantakoṭinibhālanādaya ihopāyāḥ
The means here are: the dissolution of thought-constructs; the contraction and the expansion of energy; the cutting of the flow; the observing of the beginning-point and the end-point; and others of that kind.
Every item on that list is a family of dhāraṇās in this text. Vāha-ccheda, cutting the flow, is the breath practice of verses 24 and 25. Ādyanta-koṭi-nibhālana, watching the beginning and end points, covers the group that takes the first instant of waking, the onset of a sneeze, the edge of sleep, the arrival and departure of hunger. Śakti-saṅkoca and vikāsa — energy drawn wholly in, energy flung wholly open — are the methods of the senses withdrawn and the senses spread across a horizon. Kṣemarāja is not summarising this text by coincidence: he quotes it directly in the commentary he wrote on his own sūtras. And note the orientation. Most yogic literature points upward, to a summit. The vocabulary of madhya points to a middle — and a middle is available in any pair of opposites whatever, which is why a hundred and twelve doorways can be counted at all.
The places named
- Hṛdayaहृदय · the heart
- Not the organ, and not simply the centre at the chest. Here hṛdaya is the core — the place of viśrānti, resting. The in-breath ends there and the practitioner holds at that ending; but the same word names the essence of a mantra, the heart of the Goddess, and consciousness reposing in itself. The bodily location is a doorway into everything else the word means.
- Dvādaśāntaद्वादशान्त · the end of twelve
- A measure rather than a fixed spot: the point twelve finger-breadths from a given base — which is why the texts speak of dvādaśāntas in the plural, and why Abhinavagupta (c. 975–1025) can reckon a whole series. Two matter here. The external one lies twelve fingers beyond the nostrils, in open air, where the out-breath spends itself: a void with nothing of the body in it to hold on to. The internal one is reckoned upward from the heart to the crown.
- Brahmarandhraब्रह्मरन्ध्र · the aperture of Brahman
- The opening at the crown where the central channel ends: terminus of the ascent through the centres, site of the piercing, and — in the ritual literature — the door through which consciousness is deliberately made to leave the body at death.
Above the mindसमना · उन्मना
The dhāraṇās of sound do not stop where the sound stops, and the tradition has a precise vocabulary for what lies past it. The prolonged utterance of a mantra is analysed into an ascending series of ever subtler phases: bindu, the point; ardhacandra, the half-moon; nirodhikā; nāda, resonance; nādānta; śakti; vyāpinī, the pervading; samanā; and finally unmanā.
The last two bear directly on practice. Samanā is "with mind" — the subtlest condition in which a mind is still doing something, still holding an object however faint. Unmanā is "beyond mind": not unconsciousness and not a blank, but awareness with no mental operation left in it. Every dhāraṇā that says to follow a fading sound until it is inaudible and then further is pointing here. The instruction only makes sense if there is somewhere to go once the object has gone.
The extreme statesभय · काम · हर्ष
The dhāraṇās that startle readers take intensity itself as the doorway: terror, sexual pleasure, the delight of meeting someone long absent, the relish of food, the vertigo of a height, the instant of flight from a battlefield. They are not an appendix. One verse gathers such moments together and says of them simply that the state there is made of reality:
क्षुताद्यन्ते भये शोके गह्वरे वा रणाद्द्रुते। कुतूहले क्षुधाद्यन्ते ब्रह्मसत्तामयी दशा॥
At the beginning and end of a sneeze; in terror; in grief; at the edge of a chasm; in flight from a battle; in intense curiosity; at the onset and the passing of hunger — the state there is made of the very being of Brahman.
Why should extremity work? Abhinavagupta's answer in the Tantrāloka is an argument, not a gesture. Ordinary experience is woven of vikalpa — differentiating thought, the running internal commentary by which a subject holds itself apart from an object and compares, names, prefers. Vikalpa requires slack: room to turn something over. Extremity removes the slack. In sudden terror, at the crest of pleasure, in the shock of an unlooked-for delight, awareness is so wholly occupied that it cannot construct — and what remains when construction stops is not nothing. It is the undivided awareness that was carrying the construction all along. The Spanda literature — the ninth-century Kashmirian verses that stand behind the whole Pratyabhijñā development — had said it earlier and more compactly:
अतिक्रुद्धः प्रहृष्टो वा किं करोमीति वा मृशन्। धावन्वा यत्पदं गच्छेत्तत्र स्पन्दः प्रतिष्ठितः॥
Extremely angry, or overjoyed, or at a loss — what am I to do? — or running: whatever state one arrives at then, there Spanda stands established.
Note what is not being claimed. The intensity is not sacred in itself, and nobody is being advised to go looking for terror. The state is a doorway because the machinery has stalled, and a stalled machine shows what it was running on. It is the same reasoning that lets this tradition take art seriously: camatkāra, the catch of the breath at a poem, is the identical suspension reached without damage.
Flash and abiding
Which raises the distinction on which the practical teaching finally turns. Almost anyone can have the flash — nearly every reader of the ordinary-state dhāraṇās recognises the moments they describe, because everyone has had them, and that is the text's strategy. A camatkāra costs nothing and lasts no time.
What is wanted is not a stronger flash but the same recognition made stable, and the difference is not intensity. It is viśrānti, resting. In the momentary case awareness touches its own ground and is at once reclaimed by the next thought, which reasserts a subject and an object. In the settled case it rests there while thought goes on occurring — no longer confined to a special condition. The Śiva Sūtra accordingly describes the fourth state as pervading waking, dream and deep sleep rather than replacing them, and the last of its seventy-seven sūtras names the settled condition pratimīlana: a closing which is at the same time an opening. The bridge to it is unglamorous — abhyāsa, repetition, and the willingness to return to one doorway rather than sample many.
Two ways to work with them
The tradition's practical advice, insofar as it gives any, is twofold. Read all of them, slowly, more than once — because a dhāraṇā that means nothing at one reading may open years later. And then take the one that catches, and stay with it. The text does not reward collection. Its own claim is that a single method fully entered exhausts the need for the other hundred and eleven.
It is worth knowing how thin the commentarial guidance actually is. Kṣemarāja began an Uddyota on the Vijñāna Bhairava and carried it only a few verses in, so that the metaphysical opening has an early Kashmirian exposition and the hundred and twelve do not. The running gloss on the individual dhāraṇās that most readers now use is the Vivṛti of Śivopādhyāya, generally placed in the eighteenth century — some seven hundred years after the school that produced the text. Where a modern book reports what "the tradition" says a particular dhāraṇā means, the source of that reading is very often Śivopādhyāya, and it is a late reading rather than a suppressed early one.
161 verses · page 3 of 3
सर्वत्र भैरवो भावः सामान्येष्वपि गोचरः । न च तद्व्यतिरेकेण परोऽस्तीत्यद्वया गतिः ॥ १२१ ॥
The state of Bhairava is everywhere, accessible even in ordinary things; and there is nothing else apart from it — such is the non-dual realization.
भैरव का भाव सर्वत्र है, सामान्य वस्तुओं में भी गोचर (उपलब्ध) है; और उससे भिन्न कोई अन्य है ही नहीं — यही अद्वय गति (बोध) है।
समः शत्रौ च मित्रे च समो मानावमानयोः । ब्रह्मणः परिपूर्णत्वादिति ज्ञात्वा सुखी भवेत् ॥ १२२ ॥
Equal toward enemy and toward friend, the same in honour and in dishonour — knowing this through the perfect fullness of Brahman, one becomes happy.
शत्रु और मित्र में समान, मान और अपमान में समान — ब्रह्म की परिपूर्णता के कारण ऐसा जानकर साधक सुखी हो जाता है।
न द्वेषं भावयेत्क्वापि न रागं भावयेत्क्वचित् । रागद्वेषविनिर्मुक्तौ मध्ये ब्रह्म प्रसर्पति ॥ १२३ ॥
One should cultivate aversion nowhere, nor attachment anywhere; in the freedom from both attraction and aversion, in the middle, Brahman streams forth.
न कहीं द्वेष की भावना करे, न कहीं राग की; राग और द्वेष से विनिर्मुक्त होने पर, मध्य में ब्रह्म प्रसर्पित (प्रवाहित) होता है।
यदवेद्यं यदग्राह्यं यच्छून्यं यदभावगम् । तत्सर्वं भैरवं भाव्यं तदन्ते बोधसम्भवः ॥ १२४ ॥
Whatever is unknowable, whatever ungraspable, whatever void, whatever reduces to non-being — all that should be contemplated as Bhairava; at the end of it, the rise of awakening (bodha).
जो अवेद्य (न जाना जा सकने वाला), अग्राह्य, शून्य और अभावरूप है — वह सब भैरव रूप में भावित करने योग्य है; उसके अन्त में बोध का उदय होता है।
नित्ये निराश्रये शून्ये व्यापके कलनोज्झिते । बाह्याकाशे मनः कृत्वा निराकाशं समाविशेत् ॥ १२५ ॥
Fixing the mind on the outer space — eternal, supportless, void, all-pervading, free of all limitation (kalanā) — one enters the space-less (the Absolute).
नित्य, निराश्रय, शून्य, व्यापक और कलना (सीमा) से रहित बाह्य आकाश में मन को लगाकर, साधक निराकाश (परम) में समाविष्ट हो जाता है।
यत्र यत्र मनो याति तत्तत्तेनैव तत्क्षणम् । परित्यज्यानवस्थित्या निस्तरङ्गस्ततो भवेत् ॥ १२६ ॥
Wherever the mind goes, abandoning that very object by that very (movement) in that very instant, through non-settling (non-fixity) one then becomes waveless (free of thought-waves).
मन जहाँ-जहाँ जाता है, उस-उस वस्तु को उसी क्षण उसी (गति) से त्यागकर, अनवस्थिति (कहीं न ठहरने) से साधक निस्तरंग (तरंग-रहित, निर्विकल्प) हो जाता है।
भया सर्वं रवयति सर्वदो व्यापकोऽखिले । इति भैरवशब्दस्य सन्ततोच्चारणाच्छिवः ॥ १२७ ॥
'By light (bhā) He makes all resound (ravayati), the all-bestower, all-pervading in everything' — by the constant utterance (and contemplation) of the word 'Bhairava', one becomes Śiva.
'भा (प्रकाश) से वह सबको रवित (अभिव्यक्त) करता है, सर्वदाता, सबमें व्यापक है' — इस प्रकार 'भैरव' शब्द के सतत उच्चारण (और चिन्तन) से साधक शिव हो जाता है।
अहं ममेदमित्यादिप्रतिपत्तिप्रसङ्गतः । निराधारे मनो याति तद्ध्यानप्रेरणाच्छमी ॥ १२८ ॥
On the occasion of cognitions such as 'I', 'mine', 'this', the mind passes into the supportless; by the impulse of meditating on that (supportless ground), one becomes peaceful.
'मैं', 'मेरा', 'यह' इत्यादि प्रतीतियों के प्रसंग से मन निराधार में चला जाता है; उस (निराधार) के ध्यान की प्रेरणा से साधक शान्त (शमी) हो जाता है।
नित्यो विभुर्निराधारो व्यापकश्चाखिलाधिपः । शब्दान्प्रतिक्षणं ध्यायन्कृतार्थोऽर्थानुरूपतः ॥ १२९ ॥
'Eternal, the all-pervading Lord, supportless, pervasive, master of all' — meditating moment by moment on these words in accordance with their meaning, one is fulfilled.
'नित्य, विभु (व्यापक प्रभु), निराधार, व्यापक और अखिल का अधिपति' — इन शब्दों का उनके अर्थ के अनुरूप प्रतिक्षण ध्यान करता हुआ साधक कृतार्थ हो जाता है।
अतत्त्वमिन्द्रजालाभमिदं सर्वमवस्थितम् । किं तत्त्वमिन्द्रजालस्य इति दार्ढ्याच्छमं व्रजेत् ॥ १३० ॥
'All this stands unreal, like a magic show; what reality is there in a magic show?' — by firmness in this conviction one attains peace.
'यह सब अतत्त्व (असत्), इन्द्रजाल के समान स्थित है; इन्द्रजाल का क्या तत्त्व (वास्तविकता)?' — इस दृढ़ता से साधक शान्ति को प्राप्त होता है।
आत्मनो निर्विकारस्य क्व ज्ञानं क्व च वा क्रिया । ज्ञानायत्ता बहिर्भावा अतः शून्यमिदं जगत् ॥ १३१ ॥
For the changeless Self, where is knowledge, and where is action? External existents depend upon knowledge; therefore this world is void.
निर्विकार आत्मा के लिए कहाँ ज्ञान, कहाँ क्रिया? बाह्य पदार्थ ज्ञान के अधीन हैं; अतः यह जगत् शून्य है।
न मे बन्धो न मोक्षो मे भीतस्यैता विभीषिकाः । प्रतिबिम्बमिदं बुद्धेर्जलेष्विव विवस्वतः ॥ १३२ ॥
'There is no bondage for me, nor any liberation; these are mere bugbears for one who is frightened. All this is a reflection in the intellect, as the sun is reflected in waters.'
'न मेरा बन्ध है, न मोक्ष; ये तो भयभीत के लिए डरावनी कल्पनाएँ हैं; यह सब बुद्धि में प्रतिबिम्ब मात्र है, जैसे जलों में सूर्य का (प्रतिबिम्ब)।'
इन्द्रियद्वारकं सर्वं सुखदुःखादिसङ्गमम् । इतीन्द्रियाणि संत्यज्य स्वस्थः स्वात्मनि वर्तते ॥ १३३ ॥
All contact with pleasure, pain and the like comes through the gateway of the senses; abandoning the senses thus, one abides self-poised in one's own Self.
सुख-दुःख आदि का सारा सम्पर्क इन्द्रियों के द्वार से आता है; ऐसा (जानकर) इन्द्रियों को त्यागकर साधक स्वस्थ होकर अपने आत्मा में स्थित रहता है।
ज्ञानप्रकाशकं सर्वं सर्वेणात्मा प्रकाशकः । एकमेकस्वभावत्वाज्ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं विभाव्यते ॥ १३४ ॥
All things reveal knowledge; through all, the Self is the revealer; since the two are of one and the same nature, knowledge and the knowable are contemplated as one.
सब कुछ ज्ञान का प्रकाशक है; सबके द्वारा आत्मा ही प्रकाशक है; दोनों के एक ही स्वभाव होने से ज्ञान और ज्ञेय एक रूप में भावित किए जाते हैं।
मानसं चेतना शक्तिरात्मा चेति चतुष्टयम् । यदा प्रिये परिक्षीणं तदा तद्भैरवं वपुः ॥ १३५ ॥
Mind, awareness, energy, and individual self — this group of four; when, O dear, it is wholly dissolved, then that is the body of Bhairava.
मन, चेतना, शक्ति और आत्मा — यह चतुष्टय; हे प्रिये, जब यह पूर्णतः परिक्षीण (लीन) हो जाता है, तब वही भैरव का स्वरूप (वपु) है।
निस्तरङ्गोपदेशानां शतमुक्तं समासतः । द्वादशाभ्यधिकं देवि यज्ज्ञात्वा ज्ञानविज्जनः ॥ १३६ ॥
O Goddess, I have briefly told you more than a hundred (one hundred and twelve) teachings of the waveless (thought-free) state; knowing which, a person becomes a knower of the truth.
हे देवि, मैंने संक्षेप में निस्तरंग (निर्विकल्प) अवस्था के सौ से अधिक — एक सौ बारह — उपदेश कहे हैं; जिन्हें जानकर मनुष्य ज्ञानवेत्ता हो जाता है।
अत्र चैकतमे युक्तो जायते भैरवः स्वयम् । वाचा करोति कर्माणि शापानुग्रहकारकः ॥ १३७ ॥
Being established in even one of these, one becomes Bhairava himself; by his very word he performs deeds, becoming a bestower of curse and of grace.
इनमें से किसी एक में भी स्थित होकर साधक स्वयं भैरव बन जाता है; वह अपनी वाणी से ही कर्म करता है, और शाप तथा अनुग्रह देने में समर्थ हो जाता है।
अजरामरतामेति सोऽणिमादिगुणैर्युतः । योगिनीनां प्रियो देवि सर्वमेलापकाधिपः ॥ १३८ ॥
He attains freedom from old age and death, endowed with the powers such as aṇimā; O Goddess, he becomes the beloved of the yoginīs and the lord of all assemblies (melāpa).
वह अजर-अमरता को प्राप्त करता है, अणिमा आदि गुणों से युक्त हो जाता है; हे देवि, वह योगिनियों का प्रिय और समस्त मेलापों का अधिपति बन जाता है।
जीवन्नपि विमुक्तोऽसौ कुर्वन्नपि न लिप्यते । श्री देव्युवाच । इदं यदि वपुर्देव परायाश्च महेश्वर ॥ १३९ ॥
He is liberated even while living, and though acting he is not tainted. Śrī Devī said: O Deva, O great Lord, if this is the body (nature) of the Supreme (Parā) —
वह जीवित रहते हुए भी मुक्त है, और कर्म करते हुए भी लिप्त नहीं होता। श्री देवी ने कहा — हे देव, हे महेश्वर, यदि परा का यही स्वरूप (वपु) है —
एवमुक्तव्यवस्थायां जप्यते को जपश्च कः । ध्यायते को महादेव पूज्यते कश्च तृप्यति ॥ १४० ॥
— then, in the order thus stated, who is invoked and what is the invocation (japa)? Who, O Mahādeva, is meditated upon, who is worshipped, and who is gratified?
— तो इस प्रकार कही गई व्यवस्था में कौन जप्य है और जप क्या है? हे महादेव, कौन ध्यान किया जाता है, कौन पूजा जाता है, और कौन तृप्त होता है?
हूयते कस्य वा होमो यागः क्षेत्रादि किं कथम् । श्री भैरव उवाच । एषात्र प्रक्रिया बाह्या स्थूलेष्वेव मृगेक्षणे ॥ १४१ ॥
To whom is oblation offered, and what is the sacrifice, the sacred field and so on, and how? Śrī Bhairava said: This, O doe-eyed one, is but the outer procedure, fit only for the gross.
होम किसके लिए किया जाता है, यज्ञ, क्षेत्र आदि क्या और कैसे? श्री भैरव ने कहा — हे मृगनयनी, यह तो बाह्य प्रक्रिया है, केवल स्थूल (अधिकारियों) के लिए ही है।
भूयोभूयः परे भावे भावना भाव्यते हि या । जपः सोऽत्र स्वयं नादो मन्त्रात्मा जप्य ईदृशः ॥ १४२ ॥
That contemplation which is cultivated again and again upon the supreme Reality — that is japa here; the self-arisen sound (nāda) is the soul of mantra, and such is what is to be recited.
परम भाव में जो भावना बार-बार की जाती है, वही यहाँ जप है; स्वयं उठने वाला नाद ही मन्त्र का आत्मा है, और ऐसा ही जप्य (जप करने योग्य) है।
ध्यानं हि निश्चला बुद्धिर्निराकारा निराश्रया । न तु ध्यानं शरीराक्षिमुखहस्तादिकल्पना ॥ १४३ ॥
Meditation (dhyāna) is indeed the steady intellect, formless and supportless; meditation is not the imagining of (a deity with) body, eyes, mouth, hands and the like.
ध्यान तो निश्चल, निराकार और निराश्रय बुद्धि है; शरीर, नेत्र, मुख, हाथ आदि की कल्पना ध्यान नहीं है।
पूजा नाम न पुष्पाद्यैर्या मतिः क्रियते दृढा । निर्विकल्पे महाव्योम्नि सा पूजा ह्यादराल्लयः ॥ १४४ ॥
Worship (pūjā) does not consist in flowers and the like; rather, the firm fixing of the mind in the thought-free great void — that is worship; out of reverence (ādara) comes dissolution.
पूजा फूल आदि से नहीं होती; जो दृढ़ मति निर्विकल्प महाव्योम (महान् शून्य) में स्थिर की जाती है, वही पूजा है; आदर (श्रद्धा) से लय (विश्रान्ति) होती है।
अत्रैकतमयुक्तस्थो यदुत्पद्येत दिनाद्दिनम् । भरिताकारता सात्र तृप्तिरत्यन्तपूर्णता ॥ १४५ ॥
Being established in any one of these (practices), whatever (experience) arises day by day — that state of fullness, here, is the satisfaction (tṛpti), the utter completeness.
इनमें से किसी एक में स्थित होकर जो (अनुभव) दिन-प्रतिदिन उत्पन्न होता है, वह परिपूर्ण अवस्था ही यहाँ तृप्ति है — अत्यन्त परिपूर्णता।
महाशून्यालये वह्नौ भूताक्षविषयादिकम् । हूयते मनसा साकं स होमश्चेतनासुचा ॥ १४६ ॥
When the elements, the senses and their objects, together with the mind, are offered into the fire that abides in the great void, using consciousness as the ladle — that is the (true) oblation (homa).
महाशून्य रूपी आलय की अग्नि में, भूत, इन्द्रिय और विषय आदि को मन के साथ, चेतना रूपी स्रुचा (कलछी) से हवन किया जाता है — वही (वास्तविक) होम है।
यागोऽत्र परमेशानि तुष्टिरानन्दलक्षणा । क्षपणात्सर्वपापानां त्राणात्सर्वस्य पार्वति ॥ १४७ ॥
The sacrifice (yāga) here, O Supreme Mistress, is the satisfaction marked by bliss; O Pārvatī, it is so called from the destruction (kṣapaṇa) of all sins and the protection (trāṇa) of all.
हे परमेशानि, यहाँ यज्ञ (याग) आनन्द-लक्षण तुष्टि ही है; हे पार्वति, समस्त पापों के क्षपण (नाश) और सबके त्राण (रक्षण) से वह (याग कहलाता है)।
रुद्रशक्तिसमावेशस्तत्क्षेत्रं भावना परा । अन्यथा तस्य तत्त्वस्य का पूजा कश्च तृप्यति ॥ १४८ ॥
Absorption into the Śakti of Rudra is the sacred field (kṣetra); the supreme contemplation is (the worship). Otherwise, for that Reality, what worship can there be, and who is gratified?
रुद्र की शक्ति में समावेश ही वह क्षेत्र (तीर्थ) है, और परा भावना ही (पूजा) है; अन्यथा उस तत्त्व की कौन-सी पूजा, और कौन तृप्त होता है?
स्वतन्त्रानन्दचिन्मात्रसारः स्वात्मा हि सर्वतः । आवेशनं तत्स्वरूपे स्वात्मनः स्नानमीरितम् ॥ १४९ ॥
One's own Self, whose essence is sovereign bliss and pure consciousness alone, is everywhere; absorption into that very nature of one's own Self is declared to be (the true) bathing (snāna).
स्वतन्त्र आनन्द और चिन्मात्र जिसका सार है, वह आत्मा ही सर्वत्र है; उस अपने आत्मा के स्वरूप में आवेश (प्रवेश) ही (वास्तविक) स्नान कहा गया है।
यैरेव पूज्यते द्रव्यैस्तर्प्यते वा परापरः । यश्चैव पूजकः सर्वः स एवैकः क्व पूजनम् ॥ १५० ॥
The substances by which the Supreme-and-non-supreme is worshipped or gratified, and the worshipper too — all that is the one (Self) alone; where, then, is (separate) worship?
जिन द्रव्यों से परापर की पूजा या तर्पण किया जाता है, और जो पूजक है — वह सब एक ही (आत्मा) है; फिर (पृथक्) पूजन कहाँ?
व्रजेत्प्राणो विशेज्जीव इच्छया कुटिलाकृतिः । दीर्घात्मा सा महादेवी परक्षेत्रं परापरा ॥ १५१ ॥
The prāṇa goes out and the jīva enters, of its own will, in a winding (serpentine) form; that long-bodied one is the great Goddess (Kuṇḍalinī), the supreme field (parakṣetra), the Parā-and-aparā.
प्राण बाहर जाता और जीव भीतर प्रवेश करता है, इच्छा से, कुटिल (टेढ़ी) आकृति वाली; वह दीर्घ-स्वरूपा महादेवी (कुण्डलिनी) ही परक्षेत्र, परापरा है।
अस्यामनुचरंस्तिष्ठन्महानन्दमयेऽध्वरे । तया देव्या समाविष्टः परं भैरवमाप्नुयात् ॥ १५२ ॥
Abiding and following along in that great-bliss-filled sacrifice (the rising of Kuṇḍalinī), absorbed by that Goddess, one attains the supreme Bhairava.
इस महानन्दमय अध्वर (यज्ञ) में अनुसरण करते हुए स्थित रहकर, उस देवी के द्वारा समाविष्ट होकर, साधक परम भैरव को प्राप्त करता है।
सकारेण बहिर्याति हकारेण विशेत्पुनः । हंसहंसेत्यमुं मन्त्रं जीवो जपति नित्यशः ॥ १५३ ॥
With the sound 'sa' (the breath) goes out, with 'ha' it enters again; the living being constantly recites this mantra 'haṃsa, haṃsa'.
'स' कार से (श्वास) बाहर जाता है, 'ह' कार से पुनः भीतर प्रवेश करता है; जीव 'हंस-हंस' इस मन्त्र का निरन्तर जप करता रहता है।
षट्शतानि दिवारात्रौ सहस्राण्येकविंशतिः । जपो देव्याः समुद्दिष्टः प्राणस्यान्ते सुदुर्लभः ॥ १५४ ॥
Day and night, twenty-one thousand six hundred (times) — such is declared the recitation (japa) of the Goddess; (resting) at the end of the breath, it is most hard to attain.
दिन-रात में इक्कीस हजार छह सौ (बार) — यह देवी का जप कहा गया है; प्राण के अन्त में (विश्रान्ति) अत्यन्त दुर्लभ है।
इत्येतत्कथितं देवि परमामृतमुत्तमम् । एतच्च नैव कस्यापि प्रकाश्यं तु कदाचन ॥ १५५ ॥
Thus, O Goddess, this supreme and most excellent nectar has been told; and it should never, at any time, be revealed to just anyone.
हे देवि, इस प्रकार यह परम उत्तम अमृत कहा गया; और यह किसी को भी कभी प्रकट नहीं करना चाहिए।
परशिष्ये खले क्रूरे चाभक्ते गुरुपादयोः । निर्विकल्पमतीनां तु वीराणामुन्नतात्मनाम् ॥ १५६ ॥
(It is not to be disclosed) to another's disciple, to the wicked, the cruel, or one without devotion to the guru's feet; but (it is for) those of thought-free mind, the heroes, the high-souled.
दूसरे के शिष्य को, दुष्ट, क्रूर और गुरु के चरणों में अभक्त को (यह न दी जाए); किन्तु निर्विकल्प बुद्धि वाले, वीर, उन्नत-आत्मा वालों को (ही दी जाए)।
ग्रामं राज्यं पुरं देशं पुत्रदारकुटुम्बकम् । सर्वमेतत्परित्यज्य ग्राह्यमेतन्मृगेक्षणे ॥ १५७ ॥
Village, kingdom, city, country, son, wife and family — abandoning all this, this (teaching) is to be grasped, O doe-eyed one.
ग्राम, राज्य, नगर, देश, पुत्र, स्त्री और कुटुम्ब — यह सब त्यागकर, हे मृगनयनी, इस (उपदेश) को ग्रहण करना चाहिए।
किमेभिरस्थिरैर्देवि स्थिरं परमिदं धनम् । प्राणा अपि प्रदातव्या न देयं परमामृतम् ॥ १५८ ॥
What is the use of these impermanent things, O Goddess? This (knowledge) is the supreme, abiding wealth. Even one's life-breaths may be given up, but this supreme nectar must not be given (to the unworthy).
हे देवि, इन अस्थिर वस्तुओं से क्या? यह परम स्थिर धन है। प्राण भी दे देने चाहिए, पर यह परम अमृत (अपात्र को) नहीं देना चाहिए।
श्री देव्युवाच । देवदेव महादेव परितृप्तास्मि शङ्कर । रुद्रयामलतन्त्रस्य सारमद्यावधारितम् ॥ १५९ ॥
Śrī Devī said: O God of gods, Mahādeva, Śaṅkara, I am fully satisfied; today I have grasped the essence of the Rudrayāmala Tantra.
श्री देवी ने कहा — हे देवदेव, महादेव, शंकर, मैं परितृप्त हो गई हूँ; आज मैंने रुद्रयामल तन्त्र का सार धारण कर लिया।
सर्वशक्तिप्रभेदानां हृदयं ज्ञातमद्य च ॥ १६० ॥
And today the heart (the secret essence) of all the differentiations of Śakti has been understood.
और आज समस्त शक्ति-प्रभेदों का हृदय (रहस्य) भी जान लिया गया।
इत्युक्त्वानन्दिता देवी कण्ठे लग्ना शिवस्य तु ॥ १६१ ॥
Having said this, the Goddess, filled with delight, clung to the neck of Śiva.
ऐसा कहकर आनन्दित हुई देवी शिव के कण्ठ से लग गई।
In this section
- Dhāraṇā 1 · The Two Points of ArisingAttention placed where each breath is born — one point inside, one outside — until holding becomes fullness.
- Dhāraṇā 2 · The Turning of the BreathResting in the pause where the breath turns back — within at the heart, without at the dvādaśānta — until the form of Bhairava shows itself.
- Dhāraṇā 3 · The Breath That Neither Comes Nor GoesIn the expanded state the breath-Śakti stands of itself, neither leaving nor entering, and the thought-free centre is Bhairava's own nature.
- Dhāraṇā 4 · At the End of the Held BreathAt the end of retention, of exhalation, of inhalation — at the end of each, the one called the Peaceful shines out through Śakti.
- Dhāraṇā 5 · Rays Growing StillŚakti contemplated as radiance rising from the root, subtler and subtler, coming to rest at the dvādaśānta — and Bhairava dawns.
- Dhāraṇā 6 · Lightning from Centre to CentreThe Śakti meditated as lightning, ascending cakra by cakra to the height of three fists — and at the summit, the great awakening.
- Dhāraṇā 7 · Letting Go of the TwelveThe twelvefold sequence, pierced by twelve letters, released stage after stage — gross, subtle, supreme — until the one releasing is Śiva.
- Dhāraṇā 8 · The Bridge of the BrowsFilling swiftly to the crown, breaking through by the bridge of the raised brows, the mind made thought-free — and the all-pervading surges up.
- Dhāraṇā 9 · The Peacock's Five CirclesFive voids meditated through the shimmering circles of a peacock's tail, until the meditation enters the supreme void — the Heart.
- Dhāraṇā 10 · On Anything At AllBy the same method, contemplation placed anywhere — on empty space, a bare wall, a worthy vessel — dissolves of itself and grants the boon.
- Dhāraṇā 11 · Inside the SkullThe mind set within the cave of the skull, the eyes closed, and steadiness grown by degrees — until the highest mark comes into view.
- Dhāraṇā 12 · Fine as a Lotus FibreThe central channel, fine as the fibre of a lotus stalk, meditated as inner sky — as the Goddess — and by her the God shines forth.
- Dhāraṇā 13 · Sealing the GatesThe openings of the head closed by the hands, the brow-centre pierced — a point of light appears, dissolves by degrees, and in its midst the supreme.
- Dhāraṇā 14 · The Spark of the TilakaA subtle point of fire, born of stirring within the inner light, meditated at the crown or in the heart — and its dissolving carries you into laya.
- Dhāraṇā 15 · The Unstruck SoundAbsorption in the anāhata — the unbroken sound flowing like a river in the cavity of the ear — carries the hearer from sound-Brahman to the supreme.
- Dhāraṇā 16 · The Tail of the PraṇavaOM uttered with a long-drawn ending, and the void contemplated where it ceases — the void-Śakti carries the utterer into voidness.
- Dhāraṇā 17 · Before and After a LetterFeel the emptiness out of which any letter rises and into which it falls — and by that void the feeler becomes void-formed.
- Dhāraṇā 18 · Following a Fading ToneUndistracted attention riding the long dying notes of an instrument to their very end — and at the end, the body of supreme space.
- Dhāraṇā 19 · The Mantra's Ascent into SilenceA whole mantra uttered letter by letter, then followed up through half-moon, point and resonance into the void — and the utterer of that void is Śiva.
- Dhāraṇā 20 · The Body as Open SkyOne's own body contemplated as sky in every direction at once — and for the mind gone thought-free, everything becomes that openness.
- Dhāraṇā 21 · The Void Behind, the Void BelowThe emptiness at the back and the emptiness at the base held in one simultaneous act — and from that two-fold thought-freedom the thought-free state dawns.
- Dhāraṇā 22 · A Moment of EmptinessEven a single moment of feeling the body's place as sheer void makes the practitioner a partaker of the thought-free nature.
- Dhāraṇā 23 · Space Through the SubstanceAll the stuff of the body contemplated as pervaded by space — a bhāvanā the verse promises will, of itself, become steady.
- Dhāraṇā 24 · A Wall of SkinThe skin contemplated as a mere partition with nothing at all inside it — until the meditator partakes of what cannot be meditated on.
- Dhāraṇā 25 · Within the Lotus-CupThe senses melted into the space of the heart, awareness seated in the closed cup of the lotus, mind on nothing else — supreme blessedness.
- Dhāraṇā 26 · Gathered into the Twelve-EndThe mind drawn in from every quarter of the body and dissolved at the dvādaśānta — and for the firm of resolve, the mark of Reality sets hard.
- Dhāraṇā 27 · Moment After MomentThrow the mind into the dvādaśānta anyhow, anywhere, every moment — and as its fluctuations starve, an extraordinary state arrives within days.
- Dhāraṇā 28 · The Fire of TimeThe body contemplated as a city burning in kālāgni, the Fire of Time rising from the foot — and when the burning ends, the Peaceful shines.
- Dhāraṇā 29 · Burning the WorldExtend the fire that consumed the body until the whole world is imagined as burnt — and see what the fire cannot touch.
- Dhāraṇā 30 · Subtler and SubtlerFollow the constituents of body or world as each dissolves into the one more subtle than it, until at the end Parā herself stands manifest.
- Dhāraṇā 31 · The Śakti Grown FaintAttend to the breath-power where it thins and fails at the dvādaśānta, then enter the heart with it — the door to svātantrya.
- Dhāraṇā 32 · Ascending the Cosmic PathContemplate the whole cosmos through the worlds and the adhvan, gross to subtle to supreme, step by step, until the mind itself dissolves.
- Dhāraṇā 33 · The Śaiva Reality at Every EdgeBy the process of the path, contemplate Śiva-tattva at all the boundaries of the universe, on every side — and the great awakening dawns.
- Dhāraṇā 34 · The Universe as VoidContemplate this whole universe as void, dissolve the mind into that very void, and become the vessel of dissolution.
- Dhāraṇā 35 · Gazing into the Empty JarCast the gaze into an empty vessel, set aside its walls, dissolve into the space it holds — and become one with it that instant.
- Dhāraṇā 36 · The Land Without LandmarksRest the gaze on open country empty of trees, hills and walls — where the eye finds nothing to seize, the mind's fluctuations wear out.
- Dhāraṇā 37 · The Middle Between Two ThingsHold two objects in cognition, take refuge in the middle between them, drop both at once — and Reality shines in the gap.
- Dhāraṇā 38 · When One Object Falls AwayWhen one object is set aside, do not let the restrained mind move to another — in that suspended interval, contemplation unfolds in full.
- Dhāraṇā 39 · Everything Is ConsciousnessContemplate the whole body, or the whole world, as made of nothing but consciousness — all at once, with a thought-free mind — and the supreme dawning comes.
- Dhāraṇā 40 · Filled with One's Own NectarRemember the whole world, or your own body, as saturated with your own bliss — and by your own amṛta become full of supreme ānanda.
- Dhāraṇā 41 · The Meeting of the Two BreathsThrough the saṃghaṭṭa — the striking-together — of the two breaths, at the inner end or the outer, the yogī becomes a vessel for the knowledge of equality.
- Dhāraṇā 42 · The Make-Believe DeviceBy a feigned, playful trick — a jest, a tickle — great bliss surges up at once, and through it Reality itself shines forth.
- Dhāraṇā 43 · The Ant-Crawl of Rising ŚaktiClosing all the sense-passages, as the prāṇa-śakti climbs slowly upward, at the moment of a creeping ant-like touch supreme happiness spreads.
- Dhāraṇā 44 · Between Fire and PoisonCast the blissful mind into the middle of 'fire' and 'poison' — or keep it filled with breath alone — and be joined to the bliss of love.
- Dhāraṇā 45 · The Bliss of UnionThe happiness at the culmination of absorption in union with Śakti is the happiness of Brahman — and the verse declares it one's very own.
- Dhāraṇā 46 · The Remembered UnionBy intense remembrance of the joy of union, even with no partner present, the flood of bliss rises — proving where it rose from all along.
- Dhāraṇā 47 · Joy at a Sudden MeetingWhen great joy arrives — a kinsman seen after long years — meditate on the upwelling joy itself, dissolve into it, and become one with it.
- Dhāraṇā 48 · The Savour of Food and DrinkFrom the delight of eating and drinking, contemplate the state of fullness as it expands — and great bliss arises from an everyday table.
- Dhāraṇā 49 · Absorbed in MusicFor the yogī made one with the unequalled happiness of song, when the mind ascends through that absorption, identity with the Supreme follows.
- Dhāraṇā 50 · Wherever the Mind Finds SatisfactionWherever the mind finds contentment, hold it exactly there — for there and there the very nature of supreme bliss unfolds.
- Dhāraṇā 51 · The Threshold of SleepWhen sleep has not yet come and the outer world has already gone, that state is reachable by the mind — and in it the supreme Goddess shines.
- Dhāraṇā 52 · Light-Dappled SpaceWhere sunlight or lamplight makes the air itself shimmer and dapple, fix the gaze there — and in that play one's own Self-nature shines forth.
- Dhāraṇā 53 · The Five Mudrās and the GazeThrough Karaṅkiṇī, Krodhanā, Bhairavī, Lelihānā and Khecarī, at the time of the steady gaze, the attainment of the Supreme is made manifest.
- Dhāraṇā 54 · The Unsupported SeatOn a soft seat, resting on one buttock with hands and feet left hanging free, the mind by that very posture grows supremely full.
- Dhāraṇā 55 · The Void Under the ArmsSeated well, arms held half-bent, fix the mind in the empty space of the armpits — and the mind settles into peace, dissolving there.
- Dhāraṇā 56 · Fixed Gaze, Supportless MindCast an unblinking gaze on some gross object; then swiftly make the mind supportless — and one goes to Śiva.
- Dhāraṇā 57 · The tongue at the centreTongue laid to the palate, mouth open, awareness thrown into the middle, and the syllable ha sounded only in the mind — a whole-mouth posture that ends in the Peaceful.
- Dhāraṇā 58 · The supportless bodySeated or lying down, contemplate the body as resting on nothing at all; as the mind thins, the stored residues thin with it — in a moment, the verse says.
- Dhāraṇā 59 · The moving seatOn a swing, in a moving vehicle, or gently rocking the body itself — when the mind grows calm inside motion, a divine current flows in.
- Dhāraṇā 60 · The sky dissolved in the headContemplate all space as melted into the crown of the head, as pure sky-nature; everything then takes the form of Bhairava and enters the Reality of Light.
- Dhāraṇā 61 · The bearer of infinite lightPartial knowledge is what produces duality — light outside, then darkness; know the whole universe as Bhairava's own form and carry unbounded light instead.
- Dhāraṇā 62 · The dark fortnightOn a black night of the waning moon, gaze long into the darkness itself until the formless dark yields the form of Bhairava.
- Dhāraṇā 63 · The dark behind the eyelidsClose the eyes, meet the blackness that appears before them, spread the form of Bhairava across it, and become of one substance with what you have spread.
- Dhāraṇā 64 · The stopped senseBlock any one sense — any one — and enter through its sudden silence into the non-dual void, where the Self shines out on the spot.
- Dhāraṇā 65 · The bare vowelRecite the letter A stripped of bindu and visarga — the alphabet's first sound with nothing appended — and a flood of knowing rises without warning.
- Dhāraṇā 66 · Riding the visargaTake a letter that ends in visarga and carry awareness to the very end of that final breath; with the mind left supportless there, the eternal is touched.
- Dhāraṇā 67 · The self as open skyMeditate on your own Self as space itself, walled in by no direction; the power of consciousness, left without a prop, shows you her true face.
- Dhāraṇā 68 · The needle's pointA sharp point pierces the body; awareness is joined wholly to that one burning spot — and through the purity of undivided sensation moves clean into Bhairava.
- Dhāraṇā 69 · No mind withinContemplate: 'within me there is no mind, no inner instrument at all' — and in the absence of the thought-maker, thoughts have nowhere to stand.
- Dhāraṇā 70 · Seeing through the tattvasMāyā the deluder is nothing but the limiting act of limited power; reflect discerningly on what each tattva does to you, and stand apart from all of them.
- Dhāraṇā 71 · Desire at its birthThe instant a desire springs up, see it — and lay it to rest; it dissolves back into the very source from which it leapt, and awareness stands at that source.
- Dhāraṇā 72 · Who am I between themWhen no desire has arisen and no knowing either — who, in truth, am I then? Being in fact That, one dissolves into it and becomes of one mind with it.
- Dhāraṇā 73 · The root of the risen thoughtWhen a desire or a cognition has already arisen, plant the mind in it with self-regard and let no attention wander — and it opens into the vision of Reality.
- Dhāraṇā 74 · Knowledge without an ownerKnowing can arise causeless and supportless, deceptive in nature, belonging in truth to no one — whoever realises this of knowledge itself is Śiva.
- Dhāraṇā 75 · One consciousness in all bodiesConsciousness is the nature of every body without distinction anywhere; contemplating all things as made of it, one conquers becoming itself.
- Dhāraṇā 76 · Still in the stormIn the very field of desire, anger, greed, delusion, pride and envy, hold the intellect utterly motionless — and what remains standing is the Reality alone.
- Dhāraṇā 77 · The world as a magic showSee the universe as a conjuror's display, as a vast painting, as a whirling — and from that seeing, bliss rises of its own accord.
- Dhāraṇā 78 · The middle between pleasure and painThrow the mind neither into suffering nor into pleasure; know instead, O Bhairavī, the Reality that remains standing in the middle between them.
- Dhāraṇā 79 · I am everywhereRelease the awareness stationed in your own body, contemplate 'I am everywhere' with a firm mind and a gaze that looks at nothing else — and become happy.
- Dhāraṇā 80 · Cognition without bordersWhatever knowing or wanting arises in me arises not as a confined event but as all-pervading — contemplating each cognition so, one becomes all-pervading oneself.
- Dhāraṇā 81 · The yogī's one differenceAwareness of object and subject is common to every embodied being; the yogī differs in one thing only — unbroken attentiveness to the relation itself.
- Dhāraṇā 82 · The consciousness in another's bodyExperience the awareness in another's body as immediately as your own; dropping the body's claim to special concern, one becomes pervading within days.
- Dhāraṇā 83 · Thought without a second thoughtMake the mind supportless and do not build thoughts upon thoughts; in that unpropped state the self stands as the Supreme Self, and one is Bhairava.
- Dhāraṇā 84 · The great convictionOmniscient, all-doing, pervading, the Supreme Lord — that very one am I, Śiva by nature: held with firmness, this conviction makes one Śiva.
- Dhāraṇā 85 · Waves of the one waterBhairava speaks in the first person: hold every phenomenon as a wave, a flame-tongue, a ray of the one consciousness — not produced by it, but a shape it is momentarily taking.
- Dhāraṇā 86 · Whirling to stillnessSpin the body until it drops — and in the sudden ceasing of the churned-up energy, the supreme state appears in the gap agitation leaves behind.
- Dhāraṇā 87 · When the agitation endsThree doors — failure of the sense-supports, knowledge of Śakti, dissolution of mind — each opening onto an absorption whose turbulence, when it subsides, leaves the form of Bhairava.
- Dhāraṇā 88 · The unmoving eyesA teaching announced as lineage-secret and then stated in one line: hold the two eyes utterly still, and kaivalya arises at once.
- Dhāraṇā 89 · The well's mouthStand over a deep well or chasm and look down without thought — the mind, offered pure depth and given no commentary, dissolves clearly and at once.
- Dhāraṇā 90 · Wherever the mind goesDo not restrain the wandering mind — notice instead that since Śiva is all-pervading, every place it wanders to is Him, and there is nowhere else for it to go.
- Dhāraṇā 91 · The gates of the sensesEach sense-channel is a place where the pervading Lord's consciousness becomes manifest; let any one cognition dissolve into that nature and fullness remains.
- Dhāraṇā 92 · The involuntary seamsA sneeze ending, terror, grief, the edge of a chasm, flight from battle, burning curiosity, the first bite of hunger — moments when the being of Brahman draws near unasked.
- Dhāraṇā 93 · Releasing the rememberedWhen memory arises, let the mind go into what was once seen and drop the body's self-support — released from both anchors, the Lord that you are spreads out.
- Dhāraṇā 94 · Placing and withdrawing the gazeFix the gaze on an object, then withdraw it slowly — the cognition of the thing, taken back along with the mind that held it, leaves the practitioner an abode of the void.
- Dhāraṇā 95 · The upsurge of devotionThe insight that flares in a dispassionate person at the height of devotion is itself Śakti — contemplate that state perpetually, and one becomes Śiva.
- Dhāraṇā 96 · The void between objectsWhile one thing is being known, a voidness stands between it and every other thing — meditate on that in-between, and even the object being known subsides.
- Dhāraṇā 97 · Neither pure nor impureWhat limited knowledge calls purity is impurity in Śambhu's sight; drop the whole pure–impure construction and become, in that thought-freedom, happy.
- Dhāraṇā 98 · Bhairava in the ordinaryThe Bhairava-state is everywhere and available even in common things; nothing exists apart from it — and settling into that is the non-dual realization itself.
- Dhāraṇā 99 · Equal to friend and enemyThe same toward enemy and friend, in honour and in dishonour — not by discipline, but because the fullness of Brahman leaves no vantage from which to prefer.
- Dhāraṇā 100 · The middle where Brahman streamsCultivate neither aversion anywhere nor attachment anywhere; in the space freed from both pulls, the middle opens, and Brahman moves through it.
- Dhāraṇā 101 · Contemplating the ungraspableWhatever cannot be known, cannot be grasped, is void or falls into non-being — contemplate all of that as Bhairava himself, and at the end of the contemplation, awakening dawns.
- Dhāraṇā 102 · The outer skyRest the mind on open sky — eternal, supportless, void, all-pervading, free of every limiting operation — until, saturated with its qualities, awareness enters what has no space at all.
- Dhāraṇā 103 · Landing nowhereWherever the mind moves, abandon that very object in that very instant — never allowing it to settle, until, having nowhere to land, it goes waveless.
- Dhāraṇā 104 · The name of BhairavaThe word ‘Bhairava’ unpacked from inside — the light that makes all things resound, all-bestowing, pervading everything — and its ceaseless utterance as a way of becoming Śiva.
- Dhāraṇā 105 · The slip into the supportlessIn the very act of thinking ‘I’, ‘mine’, ‘this’, the mind reaches toward something that has no support — meditate on that supportless ground and become peaceful.
- Dhāraṇā 106 · Words weighed by meaningEternal, all-pervading lord, supportless, pervasive, master of everything — dwelling on these words moment by moment, in strict accord with what they mean, one arrives at fulfilment.
- Dhāraṇā 107 · The magic showHold with firmness that all this stands like a conjurer's display — and ask what substance a magic show ever had. From the firmness itself, peace.
- Dhāraṇā 108 · Where is knowledge, where is actionFor a changeless Self, knowing and doing are impossible predicates; and since outer things hang on knowing, the world so conceived is void — an argument to be inhabited, not just followed.
- Dhāraṇā 109 · No bondage, no releaseBondage and liberation are scarecrows that frighten only the already-frightened; all of it is reflection in the intellect, as the sun stands unwetted in many waters.
- Dhāraṇā 110 · Closing the gatesEvery contact with pleasure and pain arrives through the doors of the senses; knowing this, step back from the doors and abide, self-composed, in your own Self.
- Dhāraṇā 111 · Knower and knownEverything that exists is a revealer of knowing, and through everything it is the Self that reveals — contemplate knowledge and the known as one nature, and the last division closes.
- Dhāraṇā 112 · The fourfold dissolutionMind, awareness, energy, individual self — when this whole fourfold instrument is utterly dissolved, what remains, says the last dhāraṇā, is the very body of Bhairava.