Śivasaṃhitā 1.51

Space as the perfect analogy of the ātman: omnipresent, unaffected, without real limits. A pot (ghaṭa) creates the illusion of an inner space and an outer space, but space is one. When the pot breaks, there is no fusion of two spaces: the illusion of their separation simply disappears. Likewise, the death of the body-mind does not destroy the ātman, it only eliminates the appearance of separation.

Ghaṭa (vessel, jar) is the Vedānta’s favorite image for individual jīva. The space within the jar (ghaṭākāśa) seems limited but is the same limitless space (mahākāśa) seen through an opening. The Śivasaṃhitā uses this image to show that individual consciousness is not a portion of the Absolute, but the Absolute itself appearing in form.

The ghaṭākāśa analogy is a fundamental pedagogical example in Vedānta, employed by Śaṅkara in the Vivekacūḍāmaṇi and in the Upadeśasāhasrī. In the context of a Tantric text like the Śivasaṃhitā, the image takes on practical implications: the practitioner’s body is the jar in which the yogi learns to recognize the limitless space of their own consciousness.