The final Sūtra describes the fruit of ever-present samādhi: the highest yogin immerses himself in complete I-ness (pūrṇāhaṃtā) and attains sovereignty over his own circle of powers of Awareness.

Complete I-ness and the power of Mantra

This I-ness is not a claim of personal ownership. Kṣemarāja calls it the Self’s natural astonishment at itself (svātma-camatkāra). It is complete, filled with light and joy, and is the highest form of the goddess Parā.

It is also the vital power of all Mantras. Mantras arise from it, come to rest in it, and can accomplish their respective effects only through its power. One who enters this complete I-ness therefore gains sovereignty over his own circle of goddesses of Awareness, which continually brings forth and withdraws all appearances of the universe.

The stages of reabsorption

Kṣemarāja orders the experience in an ascending sequence:

1. What is known has knowing as its essence.
2. Knowing rests in the inward-turned perceiver who is aware of himself.
3. When identification with the body and other limiting conditions melts away, the perceiver’s nature is revealed as Sadāśiva-Īśvara, whose body is the entire world.
4. His highest reality is Maheśvara: the one light that encompasses the whole world in astonished self-presence.

Nothing can appear without entering this highest light. Because the highest Lord is complete and depends on nothing outside himself, no desire remains unfulfilled. His freedom appears as unobstructed joy.

The world of sounds within the complete “I”

Kṣemarāja also explains complete I-ness through the circle of sounds not limited by Māyā. A stands for the Highest, Anuttara or Akula. Ha signifies the full expansion of power; kṣa marks its completion. The entire world of words and their objects is encompassed between a and ha, taken inwards, and appears as bindu, undivided knowing. There it comes to rest again in the Highest.

For Kṣemarāja, natural self-apprehension (vimarśa) is therefore at the same time the living wholeness of the sounds. “I” means allowing all objective experience to rest within oneself. Because this resting requires nothing beyond itself, it is freedom, original agency, and sovereignty.

One power of Awareness in all experiences

On entering this I-ness, limiting identification with body and vital energy initially subsides. Body, colour, joy, and every other appearance then become permeated by its “flavour” as well.

Whatever is perceived, ascertained, remembered, or imagined has the same power of Awareness as its sustaining ground. Through Māyā, it seems different according to its object and receives names such as knowledge, imagination, or judgement. In reality, it remains one Awareness, neither divided in time nor limited.

One who enters this power by the means explained above and rests upon it recognises the opening and closing of the senses as its movement. The inner and outer powers are then no longer an apparatus determined by Māyā, but the innate circle of the goddesses of Awareness. For Kṣemarāja, sovereignty over this circle is the form of the highest Bhairava.

In interpreting a Spanda verse cited in this connection, Kṣemarāja insists on a precise reading. The “one place” into which everything is deposited is the common pulsation of Awareness at the first arising (unmeṣa). The controlled process of arising and dissolution pertains to the subtle body (puryaṣṭaka). Kṣemarāja explicitly rejects an interpretation that simply identifies the “one place” with the gross or subtle body.

“Thus it is Śiva”

The word śivam also carries the meaning “auspicious”. The translation selects “Śiva” here; the commentary explains the additional sense as a blessing.

With iti śivam, Kṣemarāja does more than bring the text to a grammatical close. Everything in this instruction is Śiva for him:

• because the teaching leads to the realisation of Śiva;
• because it has arisen from Śiva and is grounded in the Āgamas, the scriptures of divine revelation;
• and because it is not different from Śiva’s own nature: for Kṣemarāja, everything is Śiva.

The conclusion is therefore both a summary and a blessing: what is known, the process of knowing, the perceiver, and the power through which all these appear are forms of the same reality.

Epilogue and colophon

In the closing verses, Kṣemarāja once more summarises the contrast through an image. One who allows himself at every moment to be limited by identification with body, vital energy, joy, and similar appearances fails to recognise his own Awareness, which is filled with complete joy. One who, through this instruction, sees the whole world as foam upon the nectar-ocean of consciousness is called Śiva himself.

The following verse again names the original audience: people in whom a śaktipāta brought about by Śiva has already occurred, but who cannot understand the comprehensive Īśvarapratyabhijñā without extended training in rigorous reasoning.

In the colophon, Rājānaka Kṣemarāja describes himself as one who lives from the “lotus feet” of his teacher Abhinavagupta. He thereby places his own instruction explicitly within Abhinavagupta’s lineage.