Śivasaṃhitā 1.74

Union with brahman through knowledge as the practical goal of the chapter, interwoven with the description of cumulative elemental qualities. The denser elements contain within themselves the qualities of all previous ones: the earth carries the complete register of the sensory universe. Similarly, the yogi who unites with brahman loses nothing of what they were—they contain everything in their fullness.

Śuddhe brahmaṇi (in pure brahman, unmixed) designates the Absolute in its most refined dimension. Sambaddho vidyayā (united by knowledge, connected through vidyā) indicates that the instrument of that union is knowledge—not ritual or devotion exclusively. Sahaja (natural, innate, spontaneous) describes the state that results from that union: it is not acquired but revealed.

The five cumulative qualities of the elements—culminating in earth with all five (śabda-sparśa-rūpa-rasa-gandha)—are a pedagogical map of the sensory world. In yogic practice, pratyāhāra (withdrawal of the senses, YS II.54) inverts this process: the practitioner learns to withdraw consciousness from the densest qualities toward the subtler ones, until reaching the pure space of consciousness prior to all elements.