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Rudra Yāmala
Śaiva. The Yāmala the Vijñāna Bhairava names as its own source — its place among the sixty-four, the citations that cannot be traced, and the late eastern Śākta work that now carries the title.
No tantra is named more often than this one, and few are harder to lay hands on. The Rudrayāmala is quoted by the greatest authors of the Śaiva tradition, credited as the parent of texts that are themselves famous, and named as the authority behind hundreds of later practices — while the work that now circulates under the title accounts for very little of it. This page is about the title's standing among the seven and the history of its citation; the surviving book has a page of its own.
Where it stands among the sixty-four
The Bhairava stream of the Śaiva revelation is reckoned at sixty-four tantras arranged in eight aṣṭakas of eight, and one of those eight groups is the Yāmala-aṣṭaka. That arrangement is not a modern reconstruction, but neither is it drawn from a surviving scripture read whole: it is known chiefly from the Śrīkaṇṭhīyasaṃhitā, a text preserved principally in the long extract that Jayaratha (active in Kashmir in the first half of the thirteenth century) sets out in his Tantrālokaviveka on the opening chapter of Abhinavagupta's Tantrāloka. The canon of the sixty-four, in other words, reaches us through a commentator quoting a list.
Which eight titles fill the Yāmala group varies between the sources that give it, and the variation is real rather than careless — the rosters recur in shifting combinations, with names dropping out and others taking their place. A Rudrayāmala is on nearly every one of them, and generally near the head. The Subodhinī, the commentary that travels with the Narpati Jayacaryā and supplies the seven names Narapati himself does not, puts Rudra third in its own list, after Brahma and Viṣṇu.
Within the Bhairava stream the Yāmalas belong to the Vidyāpīṭha, the goddess-centred seat. The subdivision of that seat into Yāmala-tantras and Śakti-tantras — the second group holding the Trika and the Kālīkula — rests on the analysis of the surviving Vidyāpīṭha manuscripts carried out by Alexis Sanderson, set out first in his survey "Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions" (1988) and developed at length in later studies, above all "The Śaiva Age" (2009). On that arrangement the Yāmalas are the older half of the goddess-centred revelation and the Trika stands downstream of them, which is precisely the relation the Vijñāna Bhairava's opening verse asserts.
One member of the group survives in something close to its early form and can be used as a control on the rest. The Brahmayāmala, or Picumata, is preserved in a Nepalese palm-leaf codex of 1052 CE, and it is uncompromisingly kāpālika: skull-bowl, cremation ground, the cult of the yoginīs. Whatever the Rudrayāmala known to the Kashmirians was, that is the kind of book it will have been.
The claim at the head of the Vijñāna Bhairava
The Vijñāna Bhairava, the most-read practical scripture of the Trika, opens with the Goddess speaking, and her first words are a claim about where she has been:
श्रुतं देव मया सर्वं रुद्रयामलसम्भवम् । त्रिकभेदमशेषेण सारात्सारविभागशः ॥
śrutaṃ deva mayā sarvaṃ rudrayāmalasambhavam | trikabhedam aśeṣeṇa sārāt sāravibhāgaśaḥ ||
I have heard, O God, everything that arises from the Rudrayāmala — the whole of the Trika division, without remainder, in its distinctions from essence to essence.
She has heard the Trika portion of the Rudrayāmala entire, and it has not settled the question; her next verses ask for the sāra, the essence, and then for the essence of that. The hundred and twelve dhāraṇās that follow are given as the answer. Whatever the historical relation between the surviving texts, the structure of the claim is precise: the Vijñāna Bhairava presents itself as a distillate, and the Rudrayāmala as the reservoir it was distilled from.
The Kashmirian exegetes took the claim seriously enough to build on it. Kṣemarāja (c. 1000–1050), Abhinavagupta's pupil, began an Uddyota on the Vijñāna Bhairava and carried it only through the opening verses; the exegesis was completed long afterwards by Śivopādhyāya, generally placed in the eighteenth century, whose Vivṛti is the commentary most readers now use, and a further commentary by Ānandabhaṭṭa also survives. The text with its commentaries was printed early in the twentieth century in the Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies, and it reached a wider readership through Lilian Silburn's French translation of the early 1960s and Jaideva Singh's English one of the 1970s. None of these readers treats the opening verse as a formality. For them the text's authority is precisely that it is an extract, and an extract of the Trika section specifically — which is a claim that the Rudrayāmala contained a Trika section, and therefore that the Trika is older than the lineages that transmit it.
It is not the only text to make that claim. The Parātrīśikā — the short scripture on which Abhinavagupta wrote both a long Parātrīśikāvivaraṇa, one of the densest works in Sanskrit, and a brief Laghuvṛtti — is transmitted as a portion of the Rudrayāmala, and its colophons place it there. A title that stands behind both the Vijñāna Bhairava and the Parātrīśikā is standing behind a very large share of what the Trika actually put into practice.
Cited more than read
Abhinavagupta (c. 975–1025) quotes a Rudrayāmala. Jayaratha quotes a Rudrayāmala. So does the commentarial and digest literature that follows: Rāghavabhaṭṭa, whose Padārthādarśa on the Śāradātilaka was completed in 1494 and quotes tantras by the hundred, and the great Bengali Śākta compilers of the following century and a half — Kṛṣṇānanda Āgamavāgīśa, whose Bṛhat Tantrasāra became the working handbook of Śākta ritual in the east, Brahmānanda Giri of the Śāktānandataraṅgiṇī, Pūrṇānanda of the Śrītattvacintāmaṇi. Below them runs a long tail of stotra, kavaca and mantra literature down to the printed devotional books of the nineteenth century, much of it carrying colophons that assign a hymn or an armour to the Rudrayāmala.
The difficulty is that the passages so attributed very largely cannot be located in the Uttara Tantra that now circulates under the name — and in many cases the attributions of two different authors cannot be reconciled with each other either. The chain from citation to page is broken, and it broke early. Manuscript catalogues compound the impression rather than resolving it: the great Sanskrit bibliographical surveys, the New Catalogus Catalogorum among them, record numerous separate items under Rudrayāmala titles — a paṭala here, a stotra or a kavaca there — which are plainly not chapters of one book.
What the printed Uttara Tantra actually is
The work that has been printed repeatedly at Calcutta and Varanasi since the later nineteenth century is the Rudrayāmala Uttara Tantra, the "latter" Rudrayāmala, and it is a substantial Śākta compendium in its own right: the extraction of mantras from the syllabary by coded rule, the channels and centres of the subtle body, the raising of kuṇḍalinī, long stretches on yoga and observance, and the goddess in her many forms.
Its affiliations are not those of a tenth-century Kashmirian scripture. Its presiding goddess is Tārā, and its theology is that of the Mahāvidyās, the eastern Śākta cult of the ten great goddesses — a formation of the second millennium which cannot be projected back onto the early Vidyāpīṭha. It carries the well-known story of Vasiṣṭha, who fails to propitiate Tārā by orthodox austerity, is directed to Mahācīna, and finds there a teaching conducted in wine and flesh and the company of women, which he must accept before he can succeed. This cīnācāra episode, the way of Mahācīna, is one of the tradition's own accounts of why a transgressive rite exists at all, and it is largely through this text that the story is known. What geography "Mahācīna" was meant to denote has been argued over since the early twentieth century — Tibet, China and the north-eastern borderlands have all been proposed — and the question is not settled.
The language, the cast of goddesses and the ritual assumptions place the work in eastern India and centuries after the Kashmirian citations. Estimates of its date differ and none is secure; few would put its present shape earlier than the fifteenth or sixteenth century, and portions of it are probably later still. It is a late compilation that took up a prestigious title — not the book Abhinavagupta had in front of him.
The scholarship that established this
The standard statement of the problem is in Teun Goudriaan and Sanjukta Gupta's Hindu Tantric and Śākta Literature (1981), the volume on this material in Jan Gonda's A History of Indian Literature. It sets out at length that the passages ascribed to a Rudrayāmala across the literature very largely cannot be located in the surviving Uttara Tantra, and concludes that the title has to be understood as designating a body of transmitted material rather than one fixed book.
That conclusion sits inside a wider account of how tantric canons work. Mark Dyczkowski's The Canon of the Śaivāgama and the Kubjikā Tantras (1988) collates the scriptural lists themselves — who lists what, in what order, and how the lists diverge — and shows how routinely a title in these canons names a stream of transmission rather than an object on a shelf. Sanderson's work on the Vidyāpīṭha supplies the other half: a classification of what does survive, against which claims about what does not can at least be measured.
The prudent reading that follows from all this is that "Rudrayāmala" names a body of material and a claim of descent. This is not unique — the same is true of several Purāṇa titles, and of more than one Āgama — but it is unusually pronounced here, because the title carried so much prestige that attaching a work to it was worth doing. Attribution in this literature is a claim about lineage and legitimacy before it is a bibliographical statement, and a tradition holding that its scriptures are fragments of an unbounded revelation has no difficulty with the idea that a teaching may be from the Rudrayāmala without being in any particular copy of it.
Why Rudra, and not Bhairava
The choice of name is worth a moment. Bhairava is the god of this stream, and the tantras of the sixty-four are Bhairava tantras; a Bhairavayāmala would have been the obvious title. Rudra is the older and Vedic-facing name — the god of the Ṛgvedic hymns to Rudra and of the Śatarudrīya, the litany of the hundred Rudras in the Taittirīya recension of the Yajurveda: fierce, ambivalent, and prior to the sectarian articulation of Śaivism into streams. A Rudrayāmala presents itself, by its title alone, as the pairing at the root of the Śaiva revelation rather than as one scripture within a division of it.
That is consistent with the way the text is used. Later authors cite it not for a doctrine peculiar to it but as a general authority — the place one appeals to when a practice needs to be shown as old. The name does part of the work the citation is meant to do, and it is doing that work in the Vijñāna Bhairava's opening verse as much as in a sixteenth-century Bengali digest.
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श्रीविद्यामतिसुन्दरीं त्रिजगतामानन्दपुञ्जेश्वरी| कोट्यर्कायुत तेजसि प्रियकरीं योगादरीं शाङ्करीम् | तां मालां स्थिरचञ्चलां गुरुघनां व्यालाचलां केवलां ध्यायेत् सूक्ष्मसमाधिना स्थिरमतिः सश्रीपतिर्गच्छति
śrīvidyāmatisundarīṃ trijagatāmānandapuñjeśvarī| koṭyarkāyuta tejasi priyakarīṃ yogādarīṃ śāṅkarīm | tāṃ mālāṃ sthiracañcalāṃ gurughanāṃ vyālācalāṃ kevalāṃ dhyāyet sūkṣmasamādhinā sthiramatiḥ saśrīpatirgacchati
वद कान्ते रहस्यं मे तत्त्वावधानपूर्वकम् | यद् यज्ज्ञात्वा महायोगी प्रविशत्यनलाम्बुजे
vada kānte rahasyaṃ me tattvāvadhānapūrvakam | yad yajjñātvā mahāyogī praviśatyanalāmbuje
यदि स्नेहदृष्टिरस्ति मम ब्रह्मनिरूपणम् | योगसारं तत्त्वपथं निर्मलं वद योगिने
yadi snehadṛṣṭirasti mama brahmanirūpaṇam | yogasāraṃ tattvapathaṃ nirmalaṃ vada yogine
शृणु प्राणेश वक्ष्यामि योगनाथ क्रियागुरो | योगाङ्गं योगिनामिष्टं तत्त्वब्रह्मनिरूपणम्
śṛṇu prāṇeśa vakṣyāmi yoganātha kriyāguro | yogāṅgaṃ yogināmiṣṭaṃ tattvabrahmanirūpaṇam
एतत् सृष्टिप्रकारञ्च प्रपालनविधिं तथा | असंख्यसृष्टिसंहारं वदामि तत्त्वतः शृणु
etat sṛṣṭiprakārañca prapālanavidhiṃ tathā | asaṃkhyasṛṣṭisaṃhāraṃ vadāmi tattvataḥ śṛṇu
त्वमेव संहारकरो वरप्रियः प्रधानमेषु त्रितयेषु शङ्कर | संहारभावं मलभूतिनाशनं प्रधानमाद्यस्य जगत्प्रपालनम्
tvameva saṃhārakaro varapriyaḥ pradhānameṣu tritayeṣu śaṅkara | saṃhārabhāvaṃ malabhūtināśanaṃ pradhānamādyasya jagatprapālanam
तत्राधनं मेरुभुजङ्गमङ्गं सृष्टिप्रकारं खलु तत्र मध्यमम् | तत्पालनञ्चेति मयैव राज्ये संहाररूपं प्रकृतेर्गुणार्थकम्
tatrādhanaṃ merubhujaṅgamaṅgaṃ sṛṣṭiprakāraṃ khalu tatra madhyamam | tatpālanañceti mayaiva rājye saṃhārarūpaṃ prakṛterguṇārthakam
एतत्त्रयं नाथ भयादिकारणं तन्नाशनाम्ने प्रणवं गुणात्मकम् | त्रयं गुणातीतमनन्तमक्षरं सम्भाव्य योगी भवतीह साधकः
etattrayaṃ nātha bhayādikāraṇaṃ tannāśanāmne praṇavaṃ guṇātmakam | trayaṃ guṇātītamanantamakṣaraṃ sambhāvya yogī bhavatīha sādhakaḥ
अव्यक्तरूपात् प्रणवाद्धि सृष्टिस्तल्लीयते व्यक्ततनोः समासा | सूक्ष्माद्यकारात् प्रतिभान्ति खे सदा प्रणश्यति स्थूलकलान्निरक्षरात्
avyaktarūpāt praṇavāddhi sṛṣṭistallīyate vyaktatanoḥ samāsā | sūkṣmādyakārāt pratibhānti khe sadā praṇaśyati sthūlakalānnirakṣarāt
अतीव चित्रं जगतां विचित्रं नित्यं चरित्रं कथितुं न शक्यते | हंसाश्रितास्ते भववासिनो जना ज्ञात्वा न देहस्थमुपाश्रयन्ते
atīva citraṃ jagatāṃ vicitraṃ nityaṃ caritraṃ kathituṃ na śakyate | haṃsāśritāste bhavavāsino janā jñātvā na dehasthamupāśrayante
देहाधिकारी प्रणवादिदेव मायाश्रितो निद्रित एष कालः | प्रलीयते दीर्घपथे च काले तदा प्रणश्यन्ति जगत् स्थिता जनाः
dehādhikārī praṇavādideva māyāśrito nidrita eṣa kālaḥ | pralīyate dīrghapathe ca kāle tadā praṇaśyanti jagat sthitā janāḥ
कालो जगद्भक्षक ईशवेशो तरी तु जीर्णा पतिहीनदीना | स एव मृत्युवीहितं चराचरं प्रभुञ्जति श्रीरहितं पलायनम्
kālo jagadbhakṣaka īśaveśo tarī tu jīrṇā patihīnadīnā | sa eva mṛtyuvīhitaṃ carācaraṃ prabhuñjati śrīrahitaṃ palāyanam
पञ्चेन्दुतत्त्वेन महेन्द्रसृष्टिः प्रतिष्ठिता यज्ञविधानहेतुना | सदैव यज्ञं कुरुते भवार्णवे निःसृष्टिकाले वरयज्ञसाधनम्
pañcendutattvena mahendrasṛṣṭiḥ pratiṣṭhitā yajñavidhānahetunā | sadaiva yajñaṃ kurute bhavārṇave niḥsṛṣṭikāle varayajñasādhanam
हिताहितं तत्र महार्णवे भयं विलोक्य लोका भयविह्वलाः सदा | विशन्ति ते कुत्सितमार्गमण्डले अतो महानारकिबुद्धिहीनाः
hitāhitaṃ tatra mahārṇave bhayaṃ vilokya lokā bhayavihvalāḥ sadā | viśanti te kutsitamārgamaṇḍale ato mahānārakibuddhihīnāḥ
मायामये धर्मकुलानले भवे लीनो हरेर्याति पथानुसारी | मिरयेत कालानलतुल्यमृत्युना कथं तु योगी कथमेव साधकः
māyāmaye dharmakulānale bhave līno hareryāti pathānusārī | mirayeta kālānalatulyamṛtyunā kathaṃ tu yogī kathameva sādhakaḥ
यः साधकः प्रेम कलासुभक्त्या स एव मूर्खो यदि याति संसृतौ | संसारहीनः प्रियचारुकाल्याः सिद्धो भवेत् कामदचक्रवर्ती
yaḥ sādhakaḥ prema kalāsubhaktyā sa eva mūrkho yadi yāti saṃsṛtau | saṃsārahīnaḥ priyacārukālyāḥ siddho bhavet kāmadacakravartī
वसेन्न सिद्धो गृहीणीसमृद्ध्यां महाविपद्दुःखविशोषिकायाम् | यदीह काले प्रकरोति वासनां तदा भवेन्मृत्युरतीव निश्चितम्
vasenna siddho gṛhīṇīsamṛddhyāṃ mahāvipadduḥkhaviśoṣikāyām | yadīha kāle prakaroti vāsanāṃ tadā bhavenmṛtyuratīva niścitam
कृपावलोक्यं वदनारविन्दं तदैव हे नाथ ममैव चेद्यदि | सदैव यः साधुगणाश्रितो नरो ध्यात्वा निगूढमतिभागगद्वतः
kṛpāvalokyaṃ vadanāravindaṃ tadaiva he nātha mamaiva cedyadi | sadaiva yaḥ sādhugaṇāśrito naro dhyātvā nigūḍhamatibhāgagadvataḥ
स एव साधुः प्रकृतेर्गुणाश्रितः कृती वशी वेदपुराणवक्ता | सत्त्वं महाकाल इतीह चाहं प्रणिश्चयं ते कथितं श्रिये मया
sa eva sādhuḥ prakṛterguṇāśritaḥ kṛtī vaśī vedapurāṇavaktā | sattvaṃ mahākāla itīha cāhaṃ praṇiścayaṃ te kathitaṃ śriye mayā
गुणेन भक्तेन्द्रगणाधिकानां साक्षात् फलं योगजपाख्यसङ्गतिम् | अष्टाङ्गभेदेन शृणुष्व कामपेरमाय भावाय जयाय वक्ष्ये
guṇena bhaktendragaṇādhikānāṃ sākṣāt phalaṃ yogajapākhyasaṅgatim | aṣṭāṅgabhedena śṛṇuṣva kāmaperamāya bhāvāya jayāya vakṣye
मायादिकं यः प्रथमं वशं नयेत् स एव योगी जगतां प्रतिष्ठितः | रविप्रकारं यमवासनावशे शृणुष्व तं कालवशार्थकेवलम्
māyādikaṃ yaḥ prathamaṃ vaśaṃ nayet sa eva yogī jagatāṃ pratiṣṭhitaḥ | raviprakāraṃ yamavāsanāvaśe śṛṇuṣva taṃ kālavaśārthakevalam
सर्वत्र कामादिकमाशु जित्वा जेतुं समर्थो यमकर्मसाधकः | कामं तथा क्रोधमतीव लोभं मोहं मदं मात्सरितं सुदुष्टकृतम्
sarvatra kāmādikamāśu jitvā jetuṃ samartho yamakarmasādhakaḥ | kāmaṃ tathā krodhamatīva lobhaṃ mohaṃ madaṃ mātsaritaṃ suduṣṭakṛtam
अतो मया द्वादश शब्द घातकं वशं समाकृत्य महेन्द्रतुल्यम् | सर्वत्र वायोर्वशकारणाय करोति योगी सचलान्यथा भवेत्
ato mayā dvādaśa śabda ghātakaṃ vaśaṃ samākṛtya mahendratulyam | sarvatra vāyorvaśakāraṇāya karoti yogī sacalānyathā bhavet
अहिंसनं सत्यसुवाक्यसुप्रियमस्तेयभावं कुरुते वसिष्ठवत् | सुब्रह्मचर्यं सुदृढार्ज्जवं सदा क्षमाधृतिं सेवसुसूक्ष्मवायुनः
ahiṃsanaṃ satyasuvākyasupriyamasteyabhāvaṃ kurute vasiṣṭhavat | subrahmacaryaṃ sudṛḍhārjjavaṃ sadā kṣamādhṛtiṃ sevasusūkṣmavāyunaḥ
तथा मिताहारमसंशयं मनः शौचं प्रपञ्चार्थविवर्जनं प्रभो | करोति यः साधकचक्रवर्ती वाद्योत्सवाज्ञानविवर्जनं सदा
tathā mitāhāramasaṃśayaṃ manaḥ śaucaṃ prapañcārthavivarjanaṃ prabho | karoti yaḥ sādhakacakravartī vādyotsavājñānavivarjanaṃ sadā
वशी यमद्वादशसंख्ययेति करोति चाष्टाङ्गफलार्थसाधनम् | वरानना श्रीचरणारविन्दं सत्त्वादशाच्छन्नत्रिनेत्रगोचरम्
vaśī yamadvādaśasaṃkhyayeti karoti cāṣṭāṅgaphalārthasādhanam | varānanā śrīcaraṇāravindaṃ sattvādaśācchannatrinetragocaram
तपश्च सन्तोषमनस्थिरं सदा आस्तिक्यमेवं द्विजदानपूजनम् | नितान्तदेवार्चनमेव भक्त्या सिद्धान्तशुद्धश्रवणं च ह्रीर्मतिः
tapaśca santoṣamanasthiraṃ sadā āstikyamevaṃ dvijadānapūjanam | nitāntadevārcanameva bhaktyā siddhāntaśuddhaśravaṇaṃ ca hrīrmatiḥ
जपोहुतं तर्पणमेव सेवनं तद्भावनं चेष्टनमेव नित्यम् | इतीह शास्त्रे नियमाश्चतुर्दशा भक्तिक्रियामङ्गलसूचनानि
japohutaṃ tarpaṇameva sevanaṃ tadbhāvanaṃ ceṣṭanameva nityam | itīha śāstre niyamāścaturdaśā bhaktikriyāmaṅgalasūcanāni
पूर्वोक्तयोन्यासनमेव सत्यं भेकासनं बद्धमहोत्पलासनम् | वीरासनं भद्रसुभकासनं च पूर्वोक्तमेवासनमाशु कुर्यात्
pūrvoktayonyāsanameva satyaṃ bhekāsanaṃ baddhamahotpalāsanam | vīrāsanaṃ bhadrasubhakāsanaṃ ca pūrvoktamevāsanamāśu kuryāt
सर्वाणि तन्त्राणि कृतानि नाथ सूक्ष्माणि नालं वशहेतुना मया | तथापि मूढो यदि वायुपानमाहृत्य योनौ भ्रमतीह पातकी
sarvāṇi tantrāṇi kṛtāni nātha sūkṣmāṇi nālaṃ vaśahetunā mayā | tathāpi mūḍho yadi vāyupānamāhṛtya yonau bhramatīha pātakī
प्राणानिलानन्दवशेन मत्तो गजेन्द्रगामी पुरुषोत्तमं स्मृतम् | तस्यैव सेवानिपुणो भवेद्वशी ब्रह्माण्डलोकं परिपाति यो बली
prāṇānilānandavaśena matto gajendragāmī puruṣottamaṃ smṛtam | tasyaiva sevānipuṇo bhavedvaśī brahmāṇḍalokaṃ paripāti yo balī
वदामि देवादिसुरेश्वर प्रभो सूक्ष्मानिलं प्राणवशेन धारयेत् | सिद्धो भवेत् साधकचक्रवर्ती सर्वान्तरस्थं परिपश्यति प्रभुम्
vadāmi devādisureśvara prabho sūkṣmānilaṃ prāṇavaśena dhārayet | siddho bhavet sādhakacakravartī sarvāntarasthaṃ paripaśyati prabhum
वद कान्ते महाब्रह्मज्ञानं सर्वत्र शोभनम् | येन वायुवशं कृत्त्वा खेचरो भूभृतां पतिः
vada kānte mahābrahmajñānaṃ sarvatra śobhanam | yena vāyuvaśaṃ kṛttvā khecaro bhūbhṛtāṃ patiḥ
साधको ब्रह्मरूपी स्यात् ब्रह्मज्ञानप्रसादतः | ब्रह्मज्ञानात् परं ज्ञानं कुत्रास्ति वद सुन्दरि
sādhako brahmarūpī syāt brahmajñānaprasādataḥ | brahmajñānāt paraṃ jñānaṃ kutrāsti vada sundari
शृणुष्व योगिनां नाथ धर्मज्ञो ब्रह्मसञ्ज्ञक | अज्ञानध्वान्तमोहानां निर्मलं ब्रह्मसाधनम्
śṛṇuṣva yogināṃ nātha dharmajño brahmasañjñaka | ajñānadhvāntamohānāṃ nirmalaṃ brahmasādhanam
ब्रह्मज्ञानसमो धर्मो नान्यधर्मो विधीयते | यदि ब्रह्मज्ञानधर्मी स सिद्धो नात्र संशयः
brahmajñānasamo dharmo nānyadharmo vidhīyate | yadi brahmajñānadharmī sa siddho nātra saṃśayaḥ
कोटिकन्याप्रदानेन कोटिजापेन किं फलम् | ब्रह्मज्ञानसमो धर्मो नान्यधर्मो विधीयते
koṭikanyāpradānena koṭijāpena kiṃ phalam | brahmajñānasamo dharmo nānyadharmo vidhīyate
सरोवरसहस्रेण कोटिहेमाचलेन च | कोटिब्राह्मणभोज्येन कोटितीर्थेन किं फलम्
sarovarasahasreṇa koṭihemācalena ca | koṭibrāhmaṇabhojyena koṭitīrthena kiṃ phalam
कामरूपे महापीठे साधकैर्लभ्यते यदि | ब्रह्मज्ञानसमो धर्मो नान्यधर्मो विधीयते
kāmarūpe mahāpīṭhe sādhakairlabhyate yadi | brahmajñānasamo dharmo nānyadharmo vidhīyate
ब्रह्मज्ञानं तु द्विविधं प्राणायामजमव्ययम् | भक्तिवाक्यं शब्दरसं स्वरूपं ब्रह्मणः पथम्
brahmajñānaṃ tu dvividhaṃ prāṇāyāmajamavyayam | bhaktivākyaṃ śabdarasaṃ svarūpaṃ brahmaṇaḥ patham
प्राणायामं तु द्विविधं सुगर्भञ्च निगर्भकम् | जपध्यानं सगर्भं तु तदा युक्तं निगर्भकम्
prāṇāyāmaṃ tu dvividhaṃ sugarbhañca nigarbhakam | japadhyānaṃ sagarbhaṃ tu tadā yuktaṃ nigarbhakam
अव्ययालक्षणाक्रान्तं प्राणायामं परात् परम् | ब्रह्मज्ञानेन जानाति साधको विजितेन्द्रियः
avyayālakṣaṇākrāntaṃ prāṇāyāmaṃ parāt param | brahmajñānena jānāti sādhako vijitendriyaḥ
तत्प्रकारद्वयं नाथ मालावृत्तिं जपक्रमम् | मालावृत्तिद्वादशकं जपक्रमं तु षोडश
tatprakāradvayaṃ nātha mālāvṛttiṃ japakramam | mālāvṛttidvādaśakaṃ japakramaṃ tu ṣoḍaśa
नासिकायां महादेव लक्षणत्रयमनुत्तमम् | पूरकं कुम्भकं तत्र रेचकं देवतात्रयम्
nāsikāyāṃ mahādeva lakṣaṇatrayamanuttamam | pūrakaṃ kumbhakaṃ tatra recakaṃ devatātrayam
एतेषामप्यधिष्ठाने ब्रह्मविष्णुशिवाः प्रजाः | त्रिवेणी सङ्गमे यान्ति सर्वपापापहारकाः
eteṣāmapyadhiṣṭhāne brahmaviṣṇuśivāḥ prajāḥ | triveṇī saṅgame yānti sarvapāpāpahārakāḥ
ईडा च भारती गङ्गा पिङ्गला यमुना मता | ईडापिङ्गलयोर्मध्ये सुषुम्ना च सरस्वती
īḍā ca bhāratī gaṅgā piṅgalā yamunā matā | īḍāpiṅgalayormadhye suṣumnā ca sarasvatī
त्रिवेणीसङ्गमो यत्र तीर्थराजः स उच्यते | त्रिवेणीसङ्गमे वीरश्चालयेत्तान् पुनः पुनः
triveṇīsaṅgamo yatra tīrtharājaḥ sa ucyate | triveṇīsaṅgame vīraścālayettān punaḥ punaḥ
सर्वपापाद् विनिर्मुक्तः सिद्धो भवति नान्यथा | पुनः पुनः भ्रामयित्वा महातीर्थे निरञ्जने
sarvapāpād vinirmuktaḥ siddho bhavati nānyathā | punaḥ punaḥ bhrāmayitvā mahātīrthe nirañjane
वायुरूपं महादेवं सिद्धो भवति नान्यथा | चन्द्रसूर्यात्मिकामध्ये वह्निरूपे महोज्ज्वले
vāyurūpaṃ mahādevaṃ siddho bhavati nānyathā | candrasūryātmikāmadhye vahnirūpe mahojjvale
यत्र यत्र गतो वायुस्तत्र तत्र त्रयं त्रयम् | इडादेवी च चन्द्राख्या सूर्याख्या पिङ्गला तथा
yatra yatra gato vāyustatra tatra trayaṃ trayam | iḍādevī ca candrākhyā sūryākhyā piṅgalā tathā
सुषुम्ना जननी मुख्या सूक्ष्मा पङ्कजतन्तुवत् | सुषुम्ना मध्यदेशे च वज्राख्या नाडिका शुभा
suṣumnā jananī mukhyā sūkṣmā paṅkajatantuvat | suṣumnā madhyadeśe ca vajrākhyā nāḍikā śubhā
तत्र सूक्ष्मा चित्रिणी च तत्र श्रीकुण्डलीगतिः | तया सङ्ग्राह्य तं नाड्या षट्पद्मं सुमनोहरम्
tatra sūkṣmā citriṇī ca tatra śrīkuṇḍalīgatiḥ | tayā saṅgrāhya taṃ nāḍyā ṣaṭpadmaṃ sumanoharam
ध्यानगम्यापरं ज्ञानं षट्शरं शक्तिसंयुतम् | ब्रह्मा विष्णुश्च रुद्रश्च ईश्वरश्च सदाशिवः
dhyānagamyāparaṃ jñānaṃ ṣaṭśaraṃ śaktisaṃyutam | brahmā viṣṇuśca rudraśca īśvaraśca sadāśivaḥ
ततः परशिवो नाथ षट्शिवाः परिकीतीताः | डाकिनी राकिणी शक्तिर्लाकिनी काकिनी तथा
tataḥ paraśivo nātha ṣaṭśivāḥ parikītītāḥ | ḍākinī rākiṇī śaktirlākinī kākinī tathā
साकिनी तत्र षट्पद्मे शक्तयः षट्शिवान्विताः | मूलाधारं स्वाधिष्ठानं मणिपूरं सुपङ्कजम्
sākinī tatra ṣaṭpadme śaktayaḥ ṣaṭśivānvitāḥ | mūlādhāraṃ svādhiṣṭhānaṃ maṇipūraṃ supaṅkajam
अनाहतं विशुद्धाख्यमाज्ञाचक्रं महोत्पलम् | आज्ञाचक्रादिमध्ये तु चन्द्रं शीतलतेजसम्
anāhataṃ viśuddhākhyamājñācakraṃ mahotpalam | ājñācakrādimadhye tu candraṃ śītalatejasam
प्रपतन्तं मूलपद्मे तं ध्यात्वा पूरकानिलम् | यावत्कालं स्थैर्यगुणं तत्कालं कुम्भकं स्मृतम्
prapatantaṃ mūlapadme taṃ dhyātvā pūrakānilam | yāvatkālaṃ sthairyaguṇaṃ tatkālaṃ kumbhakaṃ smṛtam
पिङ्गलायां प्रगच्छन्तं रेचकं तं वशं नयेत् | अङ्गुष्ठैकपर्वणा च दक्षनासापुटं वशी
piṅgalāyāṃ pragacchantaṃ recakaṃ taṃ vaśaṃ nayet | aṅguṣṭhaikaparvaṇā ca dakṣanāsāpuṭaṃ vaśī
धृत्वा षोडशवारेण प्रणवेन जपं चरेत् | एतत्पूरकमाकृत्य कुर्यात्कुम्भकमद्भुतम्
dhṛtvā ṣoḍaśavāreṇa praṇavena japaṃ caret | etatpūrakamākṛtya kuryātkumbhakamadbhutam
चतुःषष्टिप्रणवेन जपं ध्यानं समाचरेत् | कुम्भकानन्तरं नाथ रेचकं कारयेद् बुधः
catuḥṣaṣṭipraṇavena japaṃ dhyānaṃ samācaret | kumbhakānantaraṃ nātha recakaṃ kārayed budhaḥ