Śivasaṃhitā 4.15

The verse deploys a deliberately shocking hyperbole: brahmahatyā, the killing of a brahmin, was considered the gravest of the mahāpātaka (great sins) in classical dharmic literature. Multiplying it ‘by thousands’ (sahasrāṇi) and adding the destruction of the trailokya (the three worlds: earth, atmosphere, and heaven) creates a rhetorical accumulation signaling the absolute transcendence of the power being described.

Brahmahatyā as a technical term appears in dharmaśāstra texts from the Manusmṛti onward, where elaborate expiations are prescribed. Trailokya (tri + loka) designates the triple Vedic cosmology. The verb ghātayet (optative of ghāt, ‘to kill, destroy’) in the potential mode frames this as a maximum hypothetical scenario, not a literal description.

This argumentative structure — ‘even the worst conceivable sinner is liberated’ — is a frequent rhetorical device in Tantric and Haṭha Yoga texts for underscoring the soteriological potency of a practice. Parallel formulations appear in the Haṭhapradīpikā and Gheraṇḍasaṃhitā, serving to elevate the practice above any conventional system of merit and demerit.