Tantric · तांत्रिकDhyana shloka

The first dharana — Vijnana Bhairava 24-25

The first of the 112 techniques: the two ends of the breath, and the two silences the text says Bhairava's body shows itself in.

Vijnana Bhairava Tantra verses 24-25edition

Kaal Bhairav ·Shiva Bhairavi

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

ऊर्ध्वे प्राणो ह्यधो जीवो विसर्गात्मा परोच्चरेत् । उत्पत्तिद्वितयस्थाने भरणाद्भरिता स्थितिः ॥ २४ ॥ मरुतोऽन्तर्बहिर्वापि वियद्युग्मानिवर्तनात् । भैरव्या भैरवस्येत्थं भैरवि व्यज्यते वपुः ॥ २५ ॥

ūrdhve prāṇo hyadho jīvo visargātmā paroccaret । utpattidvitayasthāne bharaṇādbharitā sthitiḥ ॥ 24 ॥ maruto'ntarbahirvāpi viyadyugmānivartanāt । bhairavyā bhairavasyetthaṃ bhairavi vyajyate vapuḥ ॥ 25 ॥

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Meaning

Upward goes prana, downward goes jiva; the supreme, whose nature is emission, should be uttered. At the two places where they arise, by being filled, the condition of fullness obtains. Whether the breath is within or without, by the non-returning of the pair from the two voids — thus, O Bhairavi, through Bhairavi the body of Bhairava is made manifest.

This rendering is by a DharmSetu editor, not a quotation from a published translation. Compare with the public-domain translation.

A Hindi meaning has not been written for this mantra yet. Hindi is authored by a named editor rather than machine-translated, so it arrives more slowly.

How to recite

Read rather than repeated; this is an instruction, not a japa formula. visargātmā is visarga + ātmā, 'whose nature is emission' — visarga is also the name of the breathed ḥ sound, which is not an accident in a verse about breath. paroccaret is para + uccaret, merged into a long o. maruto'ntarbahirvāpi is marutaḥ + antaḥ + bahiḥ + vā + api, five pieces run together; find the joins before attempting it aloud. viyadyugmānivartanāt is viyat + yugma + anivartanāt, 'from the non-returning of the pair of voids'.

Time: brahma muhurta

Pronunciation key — sounds commonly got wrong

ट ठ ड ढ ण · ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ: Retroflex — the tongue curls back and touches the roof of the mouth. Distinct from the dental त थ द ध न, where the tongue touches the teeth.
श ष स · ś ṣ s: Three different sounds: ś as in “shy”, ṣ retroflex and further back, s plain. Collapsing them changes words.
ः · ḥ (visarga): A soft outward breath echoing the preceding vowel — not a hard “ha”.
ं · ṃ (anusvara): Nasalises the vowel; the closing sound follows the consonant that comes next.
Long vs short vowels — a / ā, i / ī, u / ū: Vowel length is meaningful in Sanskrit. Hold the macron vowels roughly twice as long.
Aspirated consonants — kh, gh, ch, th, dh, ph, bh: A distinct puff of breath. ph is an aspirated p, never an English “f”.

Word by word

ऊर्ध्वेūrdhve: upward(loc. adv.)MW1899-CDSL p.222
प्राणःprāṇaḥ: the outgoing breath(nom. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.701
अधःadhaḥ: downward(adv.)MW1899-CDSL p.20
जीवःjīvaḥ: the incoming breath, the life-breath(nom. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.422
विसर्गात्माvisargātmā: whose nature is emission(nom. sg.)
उच्चरेत्uccaret: should be uttered, should rise(3rd sg. opt.)MW1899-CDSL p.173
उत्पत्तिद्वितयस्थानेutpattidvitayasthāne: at the two places of arising

Context

This is dhāraṇā one of one hundred and twelve, and it sets the pattern for everything after it: take something that is already happening, and attend to the turn in it. The breath rises and falls, and the text is not interested in either movement. It points at the two places where a movement ends and has not yet reversed — utpatti-dvitaya-sthāne, the two points of arising — and says that at those two points there is bharaṇa, a being-filled. That word again: the root the whole text turns on, and one of the two roots the Shiva Purana derives the name Bhairava from. viyad-yugma, 'the pair of voids', names those same two points from the other side. Full and empty are used for the same instant within two verses, and the text does not treat that as a contradiction. The closing line is the text's signature construction: bhairavyā bhairavasya vyajyate vapuḥ, addressed to bhairavi. Three forms of the same word doing three different jobs in eight syllables. Through Bhairavi, the body of Bhairava is made evident — spoken to Bhairavi. That is the claim of verse 20 restated as a technique. The traditional position on material of this kind is that breath practice is received from a teacher rather than taken from a page. DharmSetu prints the verse in full and records that context alongside it, which is the standing policy for tantric material here.

Shadanga — the six limbs

The traditional analytic frame for a mantra. Blank limbs are simply not recorded for this text.

chhanda: anushtubh
devata: Bhairava

Before you begin

This is a breath contemplation, and the living tradition holds that practices of this kind are received from a teacher within a lineage rather than taken up from a text. The verse is printed here in full; if you intend to practise it, a verified acharya is the right place to begin.

Recited at / traditionally recited for

Dhyana (meditation)Knowledge (jnana)

Classified as Tantric — From the Tantras. Typically built on bija (seed) syllables. Basis for this classification.

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