Śivasaṃhitā 3.79

Niṣpattāvasthā — the state of perfect consummation, complete ripeness — arises abhyāsakrameṇa (through the sequence of practice), not through sudden revelation or special grace. The Śivasaṃhitā is implacably gradualist: transformation follows an organic sequence that cannot be skipped. Grace (anugraha) exists in the Śaiva system, but not as substitute for effort but as its complement.

The affirmation that half a second of khecarī produces liberation from disease, death, and old age seems to contradict earlier gradualism. But it must be read in context: for the yogin who has reached niṣpattāvasthā, even an instant of perfect practice contains the fullness of the entire path. The time of practice has compressed to the point where an instant equals years of ordinary effort.

Freedom from old age (jarā) and death (mṛtyu) in niṣpattāvasthā is in tantric philosophy ontological, not biological, in nature: the yogin does not become biologically immortal but their relationship with time transforms radically. Not that the body does not age — but that the being inhabiting the body no longer suffers old age as threat. Death may occur; the fear of death has disappeared. And in the tantric system, that is practically the same as immortality.