Śivasaṃhitā 3.66

This verse is a compendium of ghaṭāyoga’s ontology expressed in its six fundamental terms: three pairs of apparently opposing forces that in the ghaṭa’s unification reveal their common nature. Prāṇa-apāna are the ascending and descending vital forces; nāda-bindu are the primordial sound and the point of condensed energy; jīvātman-Paramātman are the individual Self and the universal Self. Three dualities, one single reality.

Nāda (the primordial sound, the subtle vibration) and bindu (the point, the seed) are the two constitutive principles of the mantra OM according to the nādavidyā tradition: nāda is the resonance preceding articulated sound; bindu is the point of maximum concentration where nāda converges before exploding into manifestation. Their unification in ghaṭa produces mahābindu, the source-point of all creation.

The jīvātman-Paramātman union is the final goal of the entire Vedāntic tradition: the dissolution of apparent separation between individual self and universal Being. In classical Advaita this recognition is instantaneous; in the Śivasaṃhitā’s tantric yoga it is the gradual result of the progressive unification of prānic forces within the body. Two paths toward the same understanding: the direct path of jñāna and the embodied path of prāṇa.