Kṣemarāja explains how the unlimited perceiver becomes an apparently limited saṃsārin. By his own freedom, Parameśvara causes the experience of undivided pervasion to recede and relies instead upon the experience of difference. His powers remain unlimited in their nature, but now appear contracted.

The three impurities

• Free will-power appears in contracted form as āṇava-mala: one takes oneself to be incomplete and small.
• The power of knowledge contracts from omniscience into limited knowledge. Through the intellect and senses it narrows down to the experience of separate objects. This is māyīya-mala.
• The power of action contracts from all-agency into limited capacity. Through the organs of action it narrows down to the performance of good and bad deeds. This is kārma-mala.

The five coverings

Further universal powers likewise appear in limited form:

• all-agency as kalā, restricted capacity for action;
• omniscience as vidyā, restricted knowledge;
• completeness as rāga, the sense of a lack and the desire that arises from it;
• eternity as kāla, temporal limitation;
• omnipresence as niyati, determination by particular conditions.

Such a perceiver is “poor in power” for Kṣemarāja and is therefore called a saṃsārin. When his own powers unfold, it becomes clear that he is Śiva.

The source (WHS2017) reads saṃkocāt malāvṛtaḥ, with final t. The connected text here reads saṃkocān malāvṛtaḥ: before nasal m, the final dental consonant is replaced by the corresponding nasal n (Pāṇini 8.4.45). The rule permits this nasal assimilation, which is adopted here. The underlying ablative form remains saṃkocāt; the meaning is unchanged.