Śivasaṃhitā 1.39

This verse shifts from the error itself to its resolution: rajjujñāna, knowledge of the rope, does not destroy the snake but reveals it never existed. The key term is mithyārūpa — «false form» or «illusory appearance.» The snake is not merely wrong; it is mithyā, which in Advaita designates something neither absolutely real (sat) nor absolutely non-existent (asat), but ontologically indeterminate.

Mithyā derives from the root mith, meaning to alternate or exchange, and in Advaita metaphysics it describes the status of the phenomenal world: apparently real, ultimately without independent existence. Nivartate — «ceases», «withdraws», «is reversed» — implies that the illusion does not require active destruction; it simply recedes when correct knowledge arises, as darkness is not fought but displaced by light.

This distinction between active destruction and illuminative dissolution has direct practical implications for yoga. The practitioner does not destroy the world or the body; they cultivate jñāna that allows superimposition to cease spontaneously. The haṭha techniques described later in the Śivasaṃhitā can be read as systematic preparations for this moment of effortless recognition.