This must necessarily be cultivated;without prāṇāyāma in any case.Therefore, japa and everything else must be abandoned by the supreme yogi.

This verse seems contradictory and has generated interpretative debate.A reading: prāṇāyāma is indispensable (avaśyam bhāvitavyam), and other practices such as japa (repetition of mantras) should be abandoned because they are unnecessary when prāṇāyāma is mastered.

Another reading: For the yogi who has attained the supreme state, even prāṇāyāma becomes unnecessary.Paramayoginā — for the supreme yogi — suggests that we are talking about someone who has already transcended the need for techniques.

The Bihar School resolves the apparent contradiction by distinguishing levels.For the aspirant, prāṇāyāma is essential and ritual practices can be abandoned.For the realized master, all practices are optional because the state they produced has become permanent.Mallinson observes that this attitude toward ritual is typical of left-wing tantra: the external forms are temporary scaffolding, not ends in themselves.