Śivasaṃhitā 1.34

The chapter’s most solemn declaration: Śiva as the origin and destination of all existence. Nothing exists outside this single consciousness. The verse is not metaphysical poetry but practical instruction: the yogi who realizes this truth ceases to experience themselves as a separate entity and recognizes themselves as the very field of manifestation.

The pronoun mat (from me, of me) and the verb līyate (dissolves, is reabsorbed) are two pillars of Śaiva cosmological vocabulary. Dissolution is not destruction but return: laya in Tantrism designates the reabsorption of the manifest universe into its source. What emerges, returns.

This teaching connects directly with the doctrine of Pratyabhijñā—the recognition of oneself as Śiva—developed by Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta in Kashmiri Shaivism. The Śivasaṃhitā, though of a different tradition, shares this radical vision: everything is the dance of consciousness knowing itself.