Recognition
Vijñāna Bhairava
The Devī asks what Bhairava is, is told that nothing nameable is — and then asks how, and is answered a hundred and twelve times. A Vidyāpīṭha text with no ritual in it, claiming descent from a tantra nobody can now read.
The most-read practical scripture of the Trika, and the least doctrinal. Its structure is one argument: every form of Bhairava is refused, and then, with nothing left to point at, the text begins handing over methods.
Where the text belongsविद्यापीठ
The Vijñāna Bhairava does not present itself as an independent scripture. Its colophons place it inside the Rudrayāmala, and the Devī's opening words name that tantra as the teaching she has already received in full. The Rudrayāmala belongs to the Yāmala group — one of the eight aṣṭakas into which the sixty-four Bhairava tantras are ordered — and the Yāmalas sit in the Vidyāpīṭha, the goddess-centred half of the Bhairava stream, which on its own account is the higher of the two seats. See Śaiva Āgama for that architecture.
The placement matters chiefly for what it leads a reader to expect, and then fails to deliver. The Vidyāpīṭha is where the kāpālika observance and the cult of the yoginīs belong: cremation grounds and skull-bowls, elaborate maṇḍalas, the extraction of mantras from a coded matrix, the long graded apparatus of initiation. The Vijñāna Bhairava has none of it. No maṇḍala is drawn, no mantra extracted, no deity installed, no initiation described — and the pantheon that crowds its neighbours is precisely what verses 8 to 13 dismantle. A text of the fiercest scriptural family turns out to contain almost nothing a person could not do sitting still and alone.
What kind of portion? The text calls itself an essence — sārāt sāra-vibhāgaśaḥ, essence sifted from essence — and in this literature that is a recognised genre, not a modesty formula. Enormous tantras were routinely reduced to working texts: a sāra keeps the operative core and lets the ritual scaffolding go, on the understanding that the scaffolding is available elsewhere. Read that way the Vijñāna Bhairava is not a fragment of something lost but its distillate — the part meant to be carried away.
How the text is built
| Verses | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1–6 | The Devī establishes her competence, then lists the tradition's own accounts of Bhairava's nature and shows that none can hold |
| 7 | Bhairava ratifies the question rather than answering it — the essence of the Tantra |
| 8–13 | Every named form is struck out, and the reason they were ever taught is given |
| 14–21 | What is left: an unsayable state, identified with Parā Devī, with Śakti declared the doorway |
| 22–23 | The Devī asks the only question remaining — not what, but by what means |
| 24–135 | The hundred and twelve dhāraṇās |
| 136–163 | The fruit of the practice, and the closing dialogue |
That table is tidier than the manuscripts. The text is famous for a number, and the number does not sit comfortably on the verses. One hundred and twelve dhāraṇās are counted, and the tradition has always counted them so; but the practical section does not divide into a hundred and twelve tidy verses. Some methods run over two; some single verses hold two distinct methods; and a few passages can be read either way, depending on whether a change of object begins a new dhāraṇā or elaborates the last one.
So printed texts give the whole work as one hundred and sixty-two or one hundred and sixty-three verses, and disagree about where the dhāraṇās close. The commentators reach a hundred and twelve by grouping, and they do not group identically; a reader comparing translations should expect the numbers to drift by a digit or two. The figure is a claim about completeness — that the doorways have been exhausted — not an inventory that could be audited.
The opening is not preamble
It is the reason the methods can be trusted. The Devī begins by declaring that she has already received the whole Rudrayāmala and the whole Trika — sārāt sāra-vibhāgaśaḥ, sifted essence from essence — which rules out any elementary reply. Then she lists: is it the mass of sound? the nine-fold form? the three-headed deity? the three śaktis? nāda and bindu? the cakras? These are not straw men; each is a serious position held within her own tradition.
And then she finds the flaw common to all of them:
न हि वर्णविभेदेन देहभेदेन वा भवेत्। परत्वं निष्कलत्वेन सकलत्वे न तद्भवेत्॥
For supremacy cannot arise through distinctions of letters or of bodies; it belongs to the partless. In what has parts, that supremacy cannot be.
Varṇa and deha — the phonic body and the physical body, the two things a tantric practitioner spends a lifetime working with. Both have parts. And paratva, supremacy, cannot be one item in a series without ceasing to be supreme. She has closed every door her tradition offers before Bhairava has said a word.
The hinge
Sādhu sādhu tvayā pṛṣṭaṃ tantra-sāram idaṃ priye — "well asked, well asked; this is the essence of the Tantra." He does not correct her. He ratifies her. The deadlock she reached by taking the tradition entirely seriously is not a failure of understanding; it is the essence. Everything after this verse is possible only because the questioner has been told her impasse was right.
Why the forms were taught
अप्रबुद्धमतीनां हि एता बालविभीषिकाः। मातृमोदकवत्सर्वं प्रवृत्त्यर्थमुदाहृतम्॥
These are but bugbears for children, for the unawakened of mind — all set forth, like a mother's sweet to a child, only to draw them onto the path.
A threat and a bribe: the two levers by which a small child is moved when reasons will not work. Neither is a lie — a mother offering a sweet is not deceiving the child, she is using what the child can currently respond to. The forms are thereby given a status that is neither true nor false but developmental. And note the tone: mātṛ-modakavat is affectionate. Bhairava is not sneering at what he has just dissolved.
Then verse 9 supplies three images for what a sakala form actually is — śakrajāla, a conjuror's trick; svapna, a dream; gandharva-nagara, the mirage-city on the horizon. They are not synonyms. A trick is manufactured to be taken for real; a dream is real while it lasts and gone on waking; a mirage recedes exactly as fast as you approach. Between them they cover the three ways a form fails.
Fullness, and the doorway
The negations end at verse 14 with four removals — free of the reckoning of space and time, not particularised by place, impossible to point at, in the highest sense unsayable. Verse 15 begins the recovery immediately, and changes register completely: the state is bharitākārā, full to overflowing, and it is named — Bhairavī, the Śakti of Bhairava himself. The unsayable is not a blank. It is fullness, and it has a name.
Then the line the whole later tradition carries:
शक्त्यवस्थाप्रविष्टस्य निर्विभागेन भावना। तदासौ शिवरूपी स्याच्छैवी मुखमिहोच्यते॥
For one who has entered the state of Śakti, contemplation is undivided; then he becomes of the nature of Śiva. Here Śakti is called the doorway.
Mukha is face, mouth, opening and entrance at once, and the word is chosen because it is all of them. Śakti is the face of Śiva turned towards you and she is the opening through which you go — the doorway is made of what is on the other side of it. This half-line is what licenses method at all. If Śakti is the doorway, then breath, sound, sensation and even fright are doorways, because every one of them is Śakti.
The second question
At verse 22 the Devī speaks again, and addresses him as triśūlāṅka kapāla-kṛta-bhūṣaṇa — marked with the trident, adorned with skulls. She is addressing precisely the iconography that verses 9–13 dissolved. This is not inconsistency; it shows what the refusal meant. The forms were never abolished, only denied ultimacy. One may still speak to the skull-adorned Bhairava while knowing that skulls are not what he is.
Her question has changed. At verse 2 she asked kiṃ rūpam — what is your nature. Now she asks kair upāyaiḥ — by what means. The first was answered by refusing every answer. The second is answered a hundred and twelve times. The methods themselves are treated separately, under the 112 dhāraṇās.
The commentaries
Kṣemarāja began a commentary on this text and did not finish it. What survives under his name — the Uddyota — runs to verse 23 and stops, exactly at the end of the doctrinal opening, on the threshold of the first dhāraṇā. Whether he wrote no further or the remainder was lost is not known. It is a tantalising place to lose a commentator: verse 23 is the precise point at which the text turns from what Bhairava is to how he is approached.
The gap was filled some seven centuries later. Śivopādhyāya, an eighteenth-century Kashmiri, wrote the Vivṛti, which takes up the text where the earlier commentary breaks off and carries it to the end; the standard Kashmiri edition prints the two together, so a reader moves from one hand to the other without a seam. Śivopādhyāya has the whole Pratyabhijñā behind him and reads the dhāraṇās through it, which is both his value and his limit. A third commentary, the Kaumudī of Ānandabhaṭṭa, is also known and is much less studied.
Why Abhinavagupta says comparatively little of it
The proportions surprise anyone who comes to the tradition through this text first. The Vijñāna Bhairava is now the most translated and most practised scripture of the Kashmirian schools; the tradition's greatest exponent makes comparatively modest use of it. Abhinavagupta knows it, cites it, treats it as authoritative — and it is nowhere near the centre of his work.
The reason is structural rather than evaluative. The Tantrāloka declares itself an unfolding of the Mālinīvijayottara and of nothing else, and its architecture is built from ritual, initiation, mantra-systems, maṇḍala, the ranking of scriptures, the duties of the initiate. A text containing none of these gives such a work almost nothing to build with. The Vijñāna Bhairava supplies methods, not systems. It fits nowhere in a scheme, because it has no scheme — and it is complete on any page you open.
It is the practical wing of the tradition that treasures it, and the pattern of citation shows this. Where a commentator's question is what a practitioner should actually do — how the centre is made to unfold, what one attends to in the breath, how a thought is dissolved rather than replaced — the Vijñāna Bhairava is quoted freely, and Kṣemarāja draws on it in exactly those passages of his own works. The text is not neglected; it is used for what it is good for.
In the twentieth century it travelled further than any other work of the school. Swami Lakshman Joo (1907–1991), the last holder of the living Kashmiri lineage, taught it throughout his life; and a rendering of the hundred and twelve methods made with his help reached English readers as "Centering" in Paul Reps' Zen Flesh, Zen Bones (1957), stripped of every doctrinal frame and offered as bare instructions — a genuinely odd fate for a Vidyāpīṭha scripture, and the way most of the world first met it. Scholarly translations followed, notably those of Jaideva Singh and Bettina Bäumer.
The closing: what is promisedजीवन्मुक्ति
The dhāraṇās end and the dialogue resumes. The last stretch of the text, running to verse 163, is Bhairava's account of the fruit, and it is more extravagant than anything in the practical section — which is characteristic. The methods are described with restraint; the outcome is not.
The claim is jīvanmukti, liberation while living. The one established in this state is not going to become Bhairava at death; he is Bhairava now, and the text says so without qualification — such a person is the deity, and what is offered to him is offered to Bhairava. Nothing intervenes: not a stage of purification still outstanding, not a body still to be shed. For such a person the external apparatus — vow, pilgrimage, oblation, the counted rosary — has nothing further to accomplish. It is not forbidden and not condemned; it is simply finished, in the way a ladder is finished.
The teaching itself is called paramāmṛta, the supreme nectar, and is declared secret — to be given to a disciple who is fit and withheld from one who is not. That injunction is not an afterthought: a text which has just said that terror and a sneeze are doorways has practical reasons for wanting a teacher in the room. And the fruit recovers the opening argument exactly. Bhairava could not be described because he has no parts; the practitioner who has entered by any one of the hundred and twelve doorways is, by the same reasoning, no longer a describable item either. That is why they can be offered unranked. A hundred and twelve doors; one room.
The frame then closes where it opened, on the Devī. She began by proving that no answer her tradition had given her would hold. She ends satisfied, her question exhausted — and the text's last image is not a doctrine but a gesture: the Goddess, delighted, with her arms about Śiva's neck. A scripture that spent its opening dismantling every form of Bhairava closes by putting its arms round one.
161 verses · page 2 of 3
भावे न्यक्ते निरुद्धा चिन्नैव भावान्तरं व्रजेत् । तदा तन्मध्यभावेन विकसत्यति भावना ॥ ६१ ॥
When an object is set aside, the restrained mind should not be allowed to pass to another object; then, by that intervening (middle) state, contemplation unfolds in full.
जब एक भाव (विषय) हटा दिया जाए, तब निरुद्ध चित्त को दूसरे भाव में न जाने दे; तब उस मध्य-भाव के द्वारा भावना अत्यन्त विकसित हो जाती है।
सर्वं देहं चिन्मयं हि जगद् वा परिभावयेत् । युगपन्निर्विकल्पेन मनसा परमोदयः ॥ ६२ ॥
One should contemplate the whole body — or indeed the world — as nothing but consciousness; with the mind simultaneously made thought-free, there comes the supreme dawning.
समस्त देह को, अथवा जगत् को, चिन्मय (केवल चैतन्य रूप) ही भावित करे; युगपत् निर्विकल्प मन से परम उदय होता है।
सर्वं जगत्स्वदेहं वा स्वानन्दभरितं स्मरेत् । युगपत्स्वामृतेनैव परानन्दमयो भवेत् ॥ ६३ ॥
One should remember the whole world, or one's own body, as filled with one's own bliss; by one's own nectar, all at once, one becomes full of supreme bliss.
समस्त जगत् को, अथवा अपने शरीर को, अपने आनन्द से परिपूर्ण स्मरण करे; अपने ही अमृत के द्वारा एक साथ साधक परानन्दमय हो जाता है।
वायुद्वयस्य संघट्टादन्तर्वा बहिरन्ततः । योगी समत्वविज्ञानसमुद्गमनभाजनम् ॥ ६४ ॥
Through the union (saṃghaṭṭa) of the two breaths — at the inner end or at the outer end — the yogī becomes a vessel for the upsurge of the knowledge of equality (samatva).
दोनों वायुओं (प्राण और अपान) के संघट्ट (मिलन) से — भीतर के अन्त में अथवा बाहर के अन्त में — योगी समत्व-विज्ञान के उद्गम का भाजन (पात्र) बन जाता है।
कुहनेन प्रयोगेण सद्य एव मृगेक्षणे । समुद्देति महानन्दो येन तत्त्वं प्रकाशते ॥ ६५ ॥
O gazelle-eyed one, by a make-believe device (such as tickling, a sudden feigned act), at once a great bliss arises through which the Reality shines forth.
हे मृगनयनी, किसी कुहन (बनावटी, हास्यजनक) प्रयोग से तत्काल ही महान् आनन्द उमड़ आता है, जिससे तत्त्व प्रकाशित हो जाता है।
सर्वस्रोतोनिबन्धेन प्राणशक्त्योर्ध्वया शनैः । पिपीलस्पर्शवेलायां प्रथते परमं सुखम् ॥ ६६ ॥
By blocking all the passages (of the senses), as the prāṇa-Śakti rises slowly upward, at the moment of an ant-like creeping touch, supreme happiness spreads out.
समस्त स्रोतों (इन्द्रिय-द्वारों) के निरोध से, प्राण-शक्ति के धीरे-धीरे ऊपर उठने पर, चींटी के रेंगने जैसे स्पर्श के समय परम सुख फैल जाता है।
वह्निविषस्य मध्ये तु चित्तं सुखमयं क्षिपेत् । केवलं वायुपूर्णं वा स्मरानन्देन युज्यते ॥ ६७ ॥
One should cast the blissful mind into the middle of 'fire' and 'poison' (the burning and the numbing), or, with the mind filled with breath alone, one is united with the bliss of love.
सुखमय चित्त को वह्नि (अग्नि) और विष के मध्य में फेंके, अथवा केवल वायु से पूर्ण चित्त को रखे; इससे साधक स्मर (काम) के आनन्द से युक्त हो जाता है।
शक्तिसंगमसंक्षुब्धशक्त्यावेशावसानिकम् । यत्सुखं ब्रह्मतत्त्वस्य तत्सुखं स्वाक्यमुच्यते ॥ ६८ ॥
The happiness of the Brahman-Reality that comes at the culmination of the absorption stirred up by union with Śakti — that happiness is declared to be one's very own.
शक्ति के संगम से क्षुब्ध हुए शक्त्यावेश की परिणति में ब्रह्म-तत्त्व का जो सुख होता है, वह सुख अपना ही (स्वकीय) कहा जाता है।
लेहनामन्थनाकोटैः स्त्रीसुखस्य भरात्स्मृतेः । शक्त्यभावेऽपि देवेशि भवेदानन्दसम्प्लवः ॥ ६९ ॥
O Mistress of the gods, by the intense remembrance of the joy of union (its caresses and stirrings), even in the absence of the (actual) Śakti, there arises a flood of bliss.
हे देवेशि, मिलन के सुख की चुम्बन-आलिंगन आदि क्रियाओं की प्रगाढ़ स्मृति से, शक्ति (संगिनी) के अभाव में भी, आनन्द का सम्प्लव (बाढ़) उठ आता है।
आनन्दे महति प्राप्ते दृष्टे वा बान्धवे चिरात् । आनन्दमुद्गतं ध्यात्वा तल्लयस्तन्मना भवेत् ॥ ७० ॥
When a great joy is attained, or a kinsman is seen after a long time, meditating on the joy that wells up, one dissolves into it and becomes of one mind with it.
महान् आनन्द के प्राप्त होने पर, अथवा बहुत समय बाद किसी बन्धु के दिखाई देने पर, उमड़ते आनन्द का ध्यान कर, उसी में लीन होकर साधक तन्मय हो जाता है।
जग्धिपानकृतोल्लासरसानन्दविजृम्भणात् । भावयेद्भरितावस्थां महानन्दस्ततो भवेत् ॥ ७१ ॥
By the expansion of the juice of bliss and delight produced by eating and drinking, one should contemplate the state of fullness; thereupon great bliss arises.
भोजन और पान से उत्पन्न उल्लास-रस के आनन्द के विजृम्भण (प्रसार) से परिपूर्ण अवस्था की भावना करे; तब महान् आनन्द प्राप्त होता है।
गीतादिविषयास्वादासमसौख्यैकतात्मनः । योगिनस्तन्मयत्वेन मनोरूढेस्तदात्मता ॥ ७२ ॥
For the yogī who has become one with the unequalled happiness of relishing music and other (delights), through identity with it, as the mind ascends, there comes oneness with That.
संगीत आदि विषयों के आस्वाद के अनुपम सुख से एकात्म हुए योगी की, तन्मयता के द्वारा मन के आरूढ़ होने पर, उस (परम) से तादात्म्यता हो जाती है।
यत्र यत्र मनस्तुष्टिर्मनस्तत्रैव धारयेत् । तत्र तत्र परानन्दस्वरूपं संप्रवर्तते ॥ ७३ ॥
Wherever the mind finds its satisfaction, there one should hold the mind; there and there the very nature of supreme bliss unfolds.
जहाँ-जहाँ मन को सन्तोष (तुष्टि) मिले, वहीं-वहीं मन को धारण करे; वहाँ-वहाँ परानन्द का स्वरूप प्रकट हो जाता है।
अनागतायां निद्रायां प्रणष्टे बाह्यगोचरे । सावस्था मनसा गम्या परा देवी प्रकाशते ॥ ७४ ॥
When sleep has not yet arrived and the outer sphere of objects has disappeared — that state, accessible to the mind, reveals the supreme Goddess.
जब निद्रा अभी आई न हो और बाह्य विषय-जगत् लुप्त हो गया हो, वह अवस्था मन के द्वारा गम्य है; उसमें परा देवी प्रकाशित होती है।
तेजसा सूर्यदीपादेराकाशे शबलीकृते । दृष्टिर्निवेश्या तत्रैव स्वात्मरूपं प्रकाशते ॥ ७५ ॥
When space has been made variegated (dappled) by the light of the sun, a lamp and the like, the gaze should be fixed there; right there one's own Self-nature shines forth.
सूर्य, दीप आदि के तेज से आकाश के शबल (चित्र-विचित्र) हो जाने पर, वहीं दृष्टि को स्थापित करे; उसी में अपना आत्म-स्वरूप प्रकाशित होता है।
करङ्किण्या क्रोधनया भैरव्या लेलिहानया । खेचर्या दृष्टिकाले च परावाप्तिः प्रकाशते ॥ ७६ ॥
Through (the mudrās) Karaṅkiṇī, Krodhanā, Bhairavī, Lelihānā and Khecarī, at the time of the (steady) gaze, the attainment of the Supreme is made manifest.
करङ्किणी, क्रोधना, भैरवी, लेलिहाना और खेचरी (मुद्राओं) के द्वारा, (स्थिर) दृष्टि के समय परावाप्ति (परम की प्राप्ति) प्रकाशित होती है।
मृद्वासन स्फिजैकेन हस्तपादौ निराश्रयम् । निधाय तत्प्रसङ्गेन परा पूर्णा मतिर्भवेत् ॥ ७७ ॥
On a soft seat, resting on a single buttock with the hands and feet left unsupported, by continuing in that (posture) the intelligence becomes supremely full.
मृदु आसन पर एक नितम्ब के सहारे, हाथ-पैर निराश्रय रखकर — उस स्थिति के अभ्यास से बुद्धि परा (पूर्ण) हो जाती है।
उपविश्यासने सम्यग्बाहू कृत्वार्धकुञ्चितौ । कक्षव्योम्नि मनः कुर्वन्शममायाति तल्लयम् ॥ ७८ ॥
Seated properly on a seat, with the arms held half-bent, fixing the mind in the void of the armpits (the heart-space), the mind comes to peace, dissolving there.
आसन पर भली-भाँति बैठकर, दोनों भुजाओं को अर्धकुंचित कर, कक्ष (बगल) के आकाश में मन को लगाने से, मन शान्ति को प्राप्त होकर उसी में लीन हो जाता है।
स्थूलरूपस्य भावस्य स्तब्धां दृष्टिं निपात्य च । अचिरेण निराधारं मनः कृत्वा शिवं व्रजेत् ॥ ७९ ॥
Casting a fixed, unblinking gaze upon some gross object, and quickly making the mind supportless (free of that object), one goes to Śiva.
किसी स्थूल वस्तु पर स्तब्ध (निश्चल) दृष्टि डालकर, शीघ्र ही मन को निराधार बना कर, साधक शिव को प्राप्त हो जाता है।
मध्यजिह्वे स्फारितास्ये मध्ये निक्षिप्य चेतनाम् । होच्चारं मनसा कुर्वंस्ततः शान्ते प्रलीयते ॥ ८० ॥
With the tongue turned to the middle (the palate) and the mouth held open, casting the awareness into the centre, and mentally making the sound 'HA', one is then dissolved into the Peaceful.
जिह्वा को मध्य (तालु) में लगाकर, मुख को खुला रखकर, मध्य में चेतना को रखकर, मन से 'ह' का उच्चारण करते हुए, साधक शान्त में लीन हो जाता है।
आसने शयने स्थित्वा निराधारं विभावयन् । स्वदेहं मनसि क्षीणे क्षणात्क्षीणाशयो भवेत् ॥ ८१ ॥
Whether seated or lying down, contemplating one's own body as supportless, as the mind becomes attenuated, in a moment one's (latent) residues are attenuated.
आसन पर या शय्या पर स्थित होकर, अपने शरीर को निराधार भावित करे; मन के क्षीण होने पर, क्षण भर में साधक के (वासना-) आशय क्षीण हो जाते हैं।
चलासने स्थितस्याथ शनैर्वा देहचालनात् । प्रशान्ते मानसे भावे देवि दिव्यौघमाप्नुयात् ॥ ८२ ॥
For one seated on a moving seat (a swing or a moving vehicle), or by gently swaying the body, when the mental state has grown wholly calm, O Goddess, one attains the divine flow (of consciousness).
हिलते हुए आसन (वाहन आदि) पर बैठे हुए, अथवा धीरे-धीरे शरीर को हिलाने से, मानसिक भाव के प्रशान्त हो जाने पर, हे देवि, साधक दिव्य प्रवाह को प्राप्त करता है।
लीनं मूर्ध्नि वियत्सर्वं खत्वेन भावयेत् । तत्सर्वं भैरवाकारं तेजस्तत्त्वं समाविशेत् ॥ ८३ ॥
One should contemplate the whole void as dissolved in the head, as mere voidness (sky-nature); then that all, having the form of Bhairava, enters the Reality of Light.
समस्त आकाश (शून्य) को मूर्धा (मस्तक) में लीन हुआ, केवल शून्यता रूप में भावित करे; तब वह सब भैरवाकार होकर तेज-तत्त्व में समाविष्ट हो जाता है।
किञ्चिज्ज्ञातं द्वैतदायि बाह्यालोकस्तमः पुनः । विश्वादि भैरवं रूपं ज्ञात्वानन्तप्रकाशभृत् ॥ ८४ ॥
The little that is known produces duality — outer light, and then darkness. Knowing the universe and all else as the very form of Bhairava, one becomes a bearer of infinite light.
जो कुछ थोड़ा जाना जाता है वह द्वैत उत्पन्न करता है — बाह्य प्रकाश, और फिर अन्धकार। विश्व आदि को भैरव का रूप जानकर साधक अनन्त प्रकाश का धारक हो जाता है।
एवमेव दुर्निशायां कृष्णपक्षागमे चिरम् । तैमिरं भावयन्रूपं भैरवं रूपमेष्यति ॥ ८५ ॥
In the very same way, on a dark night in the coming of the dark fortnight, contemplating the inky blackness for a long while, one reaches the form of Bhairava.
इसी प्रकार, कृष्णपक्ष के आगमन में, घोर अन्धकार वाली रात्रि में, बहुत देर तक उस तिमिर (अन्धकार) रूप का ध्यान करते हुए, साधक भैरव रूप को प्राप्त कर लेता है।
एवमेव निमील्यादौ नेत्रे कृष्णाभमग्रतः । प्रसार्य भैरवं रूपं भावयंस्तन्मयो भवेत् ॥ ८६ ॥
In the same way, closing the eyes at the start and finding inky blackness before oneself, spreading out the Bhairava-form upon it and contemplating it, one becomes one with it.
इसी प्रकार, आँखें मूँदकर सामने काले अन्धकार को (देखकर), उस पर भैरव रूप को फैलाकर भावना करते हुए, साधक तन्मय हो जाता है।
यस्य कस्येन्द्रियस्यापि व्याघातात्तु निरोधतः । प्रविष्टस्याद्वये शून्ये तत्रैवात्मा प्रकाशते ॥ ८७ ॥
By the obstruction — that is, the restraint — of any one of the senses whatsoever, for one who has thereby entered the non-dual void, the Self shines forth right there.
किसी भी एक इन्द्रिय के व्याघात (अवरोध) अर्थात् निरोध से, अद्वय शून्य में प्रविष्ट हुए साधक का आत्मा वहीं प्रकाशित होता है।
अबिन्दुमविसर्गं च अकारं जपतो महान् । उदेति देवि सहसा ज्ञानौघः परमेश्वरः ॥ ८८ ॥
For one who recites the letter 'A' without bindu and without visarga, there suddenly arises, O Goddess, a great flood of knowledge — the Supreme Lord himself.
बिन्दु और विसर्ग से रहित 'अ' कार का जप करने वाले के भीतर, हे देवि, सहसा महान् ज्ञान का ओघ (प्रवाह) — परमेश्वर — उदित हो जाता है।
वर्णस्य सविसर्गस्य विसर्गान्तं चितिं कुरु । निराधारेण चित्तेन स्पृशेद्ब्रह्म सनातनम् ॥ ८९ ॥
Carry the cognition (citi) up to the very end of the visarga of a letter that has visarga; with a supportless mind one then touches the eternal Brahman.
विसर्ग सहित किसी वर्ण के विसर्ग के अन्त तक चिति (बोध) को ले जाए; निराधार चित्त से साधक सनातन ब्रह्म का स्पर्श कर लेता है।
व्योमाकारं स्वमात्मानं ध्यायेद्दिग्भिरनावृतम् । निराश्रया चितिः शक्तिः स्वरूपं दर्शयेत्तदा ॥ ९० ॥
One should meditate on one's own Self as having the form of space, unenclosed by any of the directions; then the supportless power of consciousness reveals one's own true nature.
अपने आत्मा को आकाश के समान, दिशाओं से अनावृत (असीम) ध्याए; तब निराश्रय चिति-शक्ति अपना स्वरूप प्रकट कर देती है।
किञ्चिदङ्गं विभिद्यादौ तीक्ष्णसूच्यादिना ततः । तत्रैव चेतनां युक्त्वा भैरवे निर्मला गतिः ॥ ९१ ॥
Piercing at first some limb (of the body) with a sharp needle or the like, and then joining the awareness to that very point, the pure goal is reached in Bhairava.
पहले किसी अंग को तीक्ष्ण सूई आदि से बेधकर, फिर वहीं चेतना को लगाकर — भैरव में निर्मल गति (प्राप्ति) होती है।
चित्ताद्यन्तःकृतिर्नास्ति ममान्तर्भावयेदिति । विकल्पानामभावेन विकल्पैरुज्झितो भवेत् ॥ ९२ ॥
One should contemplate thus: 'Within me there is no inner instrument such as mind (citta).' By the absence of thought-constructs, one becomes freed of all thoughts.
'मेरे भीतर चित्त आदि अन्तःकरण है ही नहीं' — ऐसी भावना करे। विकल्पों के अभाव से साधक विकल्पों से रहित (मुक्त) हो जाता है।
माया विमोहिनी नाम कलायाः कलनं स्थितम् । इत्यादिधर्मं तत्त्वानां कलयन्पृथग्भवेत् ॥ ९३ ॥
'Māyā, the deluder, consists in the holding-fast (kalana) of limited power (kalā).' Reflecting that such are the (binding) attributes of the tattvas, one stands apart (free) from them.
'विमोहिनी माया (परिमित) कला का कलन (सीमित करना) ही है' — इत्यादि तत्त्वों के धर्म का विवेचन करता हुआ साधक उनसे पृथक् (मुक्त) हो जाता है।
झगितीच्छां समुत्पन्नामवलोक्य शमं नयेत् । यत एव समुद्भूता ततस्तत्रैव लीयते ॥ ९४ ॥
Observing a desire as soon as it suddenly arises, one should bring it to rest; from the very source out of which it sprang up, there itself it dissolves.
सहसा उत्पन्न हुई इच्छा को देखकर उसे शान्त कर दे; जिस (स्रोत) से वह उठी है, उसी में वह लीन हो जाती है।
यदा ममेच्छा नोत्पन्ना ज्ञानं वा कस्तदास्मि वै । तत्त्वतोऽहं तथाभूतस्तल्लीनस्तन्मना भवेत् ॥ ९५ ॥
'When neither desire nor knowledge of mine has arisen, who, in fact, am I then?' Being in truth That (pure awareness), dissolved in it, one becomes of one mind with it.
'जब मेरी न इच्छा उत्पन्न हुई है, न ज्ञान, तब मैं वस्तुतः कौन हूँ?' — तत्त्वतः वही (शुद्ध चैतन्य) होकर, उसमें लीन होकर साधक तन्मय हो जाता है।
इच्छायामथवा ज्ञाने जाते चित्तं निवेशयेत् । आत्मबुद्ध्यानन्यचेतास्ततस्तत्त्वार्थदर्शनम् ॥ ९६ ॥
When a desire or a cognition has arisen, one should fix the mind (upon its very root); with self-awareness and an undistracted mind, there then comes the vision of the Reality.
इच्छा अथवा ज्ञान के उत्पन्न होने पर चित्त को (उसके मूल में) स्थापित करे; आत्म-बुद्धि से अनन्यचित्त होकर, तब तत्त्वार्थ का दर्शन होता है।
निर्निमित्तं भवेज्ज्ञानं निराधारं भ्रमात्मकम् । तत्त्वतः कस्यचिन्नैतदेवम्भावी शिवः प्रिये ॥ ९७ ॥
Knowledge may arise without cause, without support, illusory in nature; in truth it belongs to no one (no object). One who realizes it thus, O dear, is Śiva.
ज्ञान निर्निमित्त (अकारण), निराधार और भ्रमात्मक हो सकता है; तत्त्वतः यह किसी का (किसी विषय का) नहीं है — हे प्रिये, ऐसा जानने वाला (भावना करने वाला) शिव है।
चिद्धर्मा सर्वदेहेषु विशेषो नास्ति कुत्रचित् । अतश्च तन्मयं सर्वं भावयन्भवजिज्जनः ॥ ९८ ॥
Consciousness (cit) is the essential nature in all bodies; there is no distinction anywhere. Therefore, contemplating everything as filled with that (consciousness), a person conquers becoming (saṃsāra).
समस्त शरीरों में चिति ही धर्म (स्वरूप) है; कहीं कोई भेद नहीं है। अतः सब कुछ उसी (चैतन्य) से तन्मय भावित करता हुआ मनुष्य संसार को जीत लेता है।
कामक्रोधलोभमोहमदमात्सर्यगोचरे । बुद्धिं निस्तिमितां कृत्वा तत्तत्त्वमवशिष्यते ॥ ९९ ॥
Making the intellect motionless in the very sphere of desire, anger, greed, delusion, pride and jealousy, that Reality alone remains.
काम, क्रोध, लोभ, मोह, मद और मात्सर्य के क्षेत्र में बुद्धि को निस्तिमित (निश्चल) बनाने पर, केवल वह तत्त्व ही शेष रह जाता है।
इन्द्रजालमयं विश्वं व्यस्तं वा चित्रकर्मवत् । भ्रमद्वा ध्यायतः सर्वं पश्यतश्च सुखोद्गमः ॥ १०० ॥
The universe is like a magic show, or spread out like a painting, or whirling round; for one who meditates upon and sees all of it thus, there is an upsurge of bliss.
यह विश्व इन्द्रजाल के समान है, अथवा चित्रकर्म की भाँति बिखरा हुआ, या घूमता हुआ; ऐसा सब कुछ ध्याते और देखते हुए साधक को सुख का उद्गम होता है।
न चित्तं निक्षिपेद्दुःखे न सुखे वा परिक्षिपेत् । भैरवि ज्ञायतां मध्ये किं तत्त्वमवशिष्यते ॥ १०१ ॥
One should not cast the mind into pain, nor fling it into pleasure; O Bhairavī, let it be known what Reality remains in the middle (between the two).
न चित्त को दुःख में डाले, न सुख में फेंके; हे भैरवि, (दोनों के) मध्य में जो तत्त्व शेष रहता है, उसे जानो।
विहाय निजदेहस्थां सर्वत्रास्मीति भावयन् । दृढेन मनसा दृष्ट्या नान्येक्षिण्या सुखी भवेत् ॥ १०२ ॥
Abandoning attachment to the body, contemplating 'I am everywhere,' with a firm mind and a gaze that looks on nothing else, one becomes happy.
अपने शरीर में स्थित (आसक्ति) को छोड़कर, 'मैं सर्वत्र हूँ' — ऐसी भावना करते हुए, दृढ़ मन और अन्य को न देखने वाली दृष्टि से साधक सुखी हो जाता है।
घटादौ यच्च विज्ञानमिच्छाद्यं वा ममान्तरे । नैव सर्वगतं जातं भावयन्निति सर्वगः ॥ १०३ ॥
'Whatever cognition of a pot and the like, or desire and so on, arises within me — it has not arisen as confined, but as all-pervading' — contemplating thus, one becomes all-pervading.
'घट आदि का जो ज्ञान, अथवा इच्छा आदि, मेरे भीतर उठता है, वह परिमित नहीं बल्कि सर्वगत (सर्वव्यापक) ही उत्पन्न हुआ है' — ऐसी भावना करता हुआ साधक सर्वगत हो जाता है।
ग्राह्यग्राहकसंवित्तिः सामान्या सर्वदेहिनाम् । योगिनां तु विशेषोऽयं संबन्धे सावधानता ॥ १०४ ॥
The awareness of the grasped (object) and the grasper (subject) is common to all embodied beings; but the yogī's distinction is this — alert attentiveness in that very relation.
ग्राह्य (विषय) और ग्राहक (विषयी) की संवित्ति सभी देहधारियों में समान है; किन्तु योगियों की विशेषता यह है — उस सम्बन्ध में सावधानता (सजगता)।
स्ववदन्यशरीरेऽपि संवित्तिमनुभावयेत् । अपेक्षां स्वशरीरस्य त्यक्त्वा व्यापी दिनैर्भवेत् ॥ १०५ ॥
One should experience the consciousness in another's body just as in one's own; giving up concern for one's own body, in a few days one becomes all-pervading.
दूसरे के शरीर में भी संवित्ति (चैतन्य) को अपने ही (शरीर) के समान अनुभव करे; अपने शरीर की अपेक्षा (आसक्ति) छोड़कर, कुछ ही दिनों में साधक व्यापी (सर्वव्यापक) हो जाता है।
निराधारं मनः कृत्वा विकल्पान्न विकल्पयेत् । तदात्मपरमात्मत्वे भैरवो मृगलोचने ॥ १०६ ॥
Making the mind supportless, one should not form thought-constructs out of the thoughts; then, in the identity of the self with the Supreme Self, one is Bhairava, O doe-eyed one.
मन को निराधार बनाकर विकल्पों का विकल्पन न करे; तब आत्मा और परमात्मा की एकता में, हे मृगलोचने, साधक भैरव हो जाता है।
सर्वज्ञः सर्वकर्ता च व्यापकः परमेश्वरः । स एवाहं शैवधर्मा इति दार्ढ्याच्छिवो भवेत् ॥ १०७ ॥
'Omniscient, all-doing, all-pervading, the Supreme Lord — that very One am I, of the nature of Śiva.' By firmness in this (conviction), one becomes Śiva.
'सर्वज्ञ, सर्वकर्ता, व्यापक, परमेश्वर — वही मैं हूँ, शिव-स्वरूप' — इस (भावना) की दृढ़ता से साधक शिव हो जाता है।
जलस्येवोर्मयो वह्नेर्ज्वालाभङ्ग्यः प्रभा रवेः । ममैव भैरवस्यैता विश्वभङ्ग्यो विभेदिताः ॥ १०८ ॥
As waves from water, as tongues of flame from fire, as rays from the sun — so these waves of the universe are but differentiations of me, Bhairava.
जैसे जल की लहरें, अग्नि की ज्वालाएँ, सूर्य की किरणें — वैसे ही ये विश्व की तरंगें मुझ भैरव की ही विभेदित (फैली हुई) हैं।
भ्रान्त्वा भ्रान्त्वा शरीरेण त्वरितं भुवि पातनात् । क्षोभशक्तिविरामेण परा संजायते दशा ॥ १०९ ॥
By whirling and whirling with the body and then quickly dropping to the ground, with the ceasing of the energy of agitation, the supreme state is born.
शरीर से घूम-घूमकर, शीघ्र ही भूमि पर गिर जाने से, क्षोभ-शक्ति के विराम (शान्त होने) से परा दशा उत्पन्न होती है।
आधारेष्वथवाऽशक्तेर्ज्ञानाच्चित्तलयेन वा । जातशक्तिसमावेशक्षोभान्ते भैरवं वपुः ॥ ११० ॥
Through incapacity at the supports (of the senses), or by the knowledge of Śakti, or by dissolution of the mind — at the end of the agitation of the absorption that has thus arisen, the form of Bhairava (is realized).
आधारों में (इन्द्रियों की) अशक्ति से, अथवा शक्ति के ज्ञान से, अथवा चित्त के लय से — उत्पन्न शक्ति-समावेश के क्षोभ के अन्त में भैरव-स्वरूप (प्रकट होता है)।
सम्प्रदायमिमं देवि शृणु सम्यग्वदाम्यहम् । कैवल्यं जायते सद्यो नेत्रयोः स्तब्धमात्रयोः ॥ १११ ॥
Hear, O Goddess, this tradition which I declare rightly: liberation (kaivalya) arises at once when the two eyes are held merely motionless.
हे देवि, इस सम्प्रदाय (परम्परा) को सुनो, जिसे मैं भली-भाँति कहता हूँ: दोनों नेत्रों के केवल स्तब्ध (निश्चल) हो जाने मात्र से तत्काल कैवल्य उत्पन्न होता है।
कूपादिके महागर्ते स्थित्वोपरि निरीक्षणात् । अविकल्पमतेः सम्यक्सद्यश्चित्तलयः स्फुटम् ॥ ११२ ॥
By standing above a deep chasm such as a well and gazing down into it, for one whose mind is free of thought, clearly and at once the dissolution of the mind takes place.
कुएँ आदि किसी गहरे गर्त के ऊपर खड़े होकर नीचे देखने से, निर्विकल्प बुद्धि वाले साधक का तत्काल और स्पष्ट रूप से चित्त-लय हो जाता है।
यत्र यत्र मनो याति बाह्ये वाभ्यन्तरेऽपि वा । तत्र तत्र शिवावस्था व्यापकत्वात्क्व यास्यति ॥ ११३ ॥
Wherever the mind goes, whether outward or within, there and there is the state of Śiva; since He is all-pervading, where could (the mind) go (apart from Him)?
मन जहाँ-जहाँ जाता है — बाहर या भीतर — वहीं-वहीं शिव की अवस्था है; (शिव के) व्यापक होने से वह कहाँ जा सकता है?
यत्र यत्राक्षमार्गेण चैतन्यं व्यज्यते विभोः । तस्य तन्मात्रधर्मित्वाच्चिल्लयाद्भरितात्मता ॥ ११४ ॥
Wherever, by the path of a sense-organ, the consciousness of the all-pervading Lord is made manifest — since it has That alone as its nature, by the dissolution of consciousness (into its source) comes the state of fullness.
जहाँ-जहाँ इन्द्रिय के मार्ग से विभु (व्यापक प्रभु) का चैतन्य प्रकट होता है, उसके उसी (चैतन्य) मात्र को धर्म रखने के कारण, चित् के लय से परिपूर्णता (भरितात्मता) प्राप्त होती है।
क्षुताद्यन्ते भये शोके गह्वरे वा रणाद्द्रुते । कुतूहले क्षुधाद्यन्ते ब्रह्मसत्ता समीपगा ॥ ११५ ॥
At the end of a sneeze, in terror, in sorrow, (looking down) into a chasm, while fleeing from battle, in keen curiosity, at the end (the onset) of hunger — the very being of Brahman draws near.
छींक के अन्त में, भय में, शोक में, गहरे गड्ढे (के किनारे) पर, युद्ध से भागते समय, अत्यन्त कौतूहल में, भूख के अन्त में — ब्रह्म-सत्ता समीप आ जाती है।
वस्तुषु स्मर्यमाणेषु दृष्टे देशे मनस्त्यजेत् । स्वशरीरं निराधारं कृत्वा प्रसरति प्रभुः ॥ ११६ ॥
When objects are being remembered, one should let the mind go (release it) toward the place (or moment) that was seen; making one's own body supportless, the Lord (the Self) spreads forth.
वस्तुओं के स्मरण किए जाते समय, देखे हुए स्थान (पूर्व-दशा) की ओर मन को छोड़ दे; अपने शरीर को निराधार बनाकर, प्रभु (आत्मा) फैल जाता है।
क्वचिद्वस्तुनि विन्यस्य शनैर्दृष्टिं निवर्तयेत् । तज्ज्ञानं चित्तसहितं देवि शून्यालयो भवेत् ॥ ११७ ॥
Fixing the gaze on some object, one should slowly withdraw it; that cognition, together with the mind (and its object), O Goddess, makes one become the abode of the void.
किसी वस्तु पर दृष्टि स्थापित कर, धीरे-धीरे उसे लौटा ले; हे देवि, वह ज्ञान चित्त (और विषय) सहित (लीन होकर) साधक को शून्य का आलय बना देता है।
भक्त्युद्रेकाद्विरक्तस्य यादृशी जायते मतिः । सा शक्तिः शाङ्करी नित्यं भावयेत्तां ततः शिवः ॥ ११८ ॥
The kind of insight (mati) that is born in the dispassionate one from an upsurge of devotion — that is the Śāṅkarī Śakti; ever contemplating it, one becomes Śiva.
भक्ति के उद्रेक से विरक्त साधक में जैसी मति उत्पन्न होती है, वही शाङ्करी शक्ति है; उसका नित्य भावना करने से साधक शिव हो जाता है।
वस्त्वन्तरे वेद्यमाने शनैर्वस्तुषु शून्यता । तामेव मनसा ध्यात्वा विदितोऽपि प्रशाम्यति ॥ ११९ ॥
While one object is being cognized, gradually there is voidness among (between) the objects; meditating on that very voidness with the mind, even the cognized object subsides.
एक वस्तु के ज्ञात होते समय, धीरे-धीरे वस्तुओं के बीच शून्यता (आ जाती है); उसी शून्यता का मन से ध्यान करने पर, ज्ञात विषय भी शान्त हो जाता है।
किञ्चिज्ज्ञैर्या स्मृता शुद्धिः साशुद्धिः शम्भुदर्शने । न शुचिर्ह्यशुचिस्तस्मान्निर्विकल्पः सुखी भवेत् ॥ १२० ॥
The purity that is conceived by those of little knowledge is impurity in the vision of Śambhu; there is neither pure nor impure — therefore, becoming thought-free, one is happy.
अल्पज्ञों द्वारा जो शुद्धि मानी गई है, वह शम्भु के दर्शन (शैव दृष्टि) में अशुद्धि है; न कुछ शुचि (पवित्र) है न अशुचि — अतः निर्विकल्प होकर साधक सुखी हो जाता है।
In this section
- The 112 DhāraṇāsOne method per verse, unranked and unsequenced — the first of them is the breath, and the operative verb throughout is *bhāvanā*, which is not imagination.