Śivasaṃhitā 4.57

The mental condition for practicing Khecarī is here described with precision: svasthacitto hyatandritaḥ, ‘with a sound mind (svastha, established in itself) and without laziness (atandrita)’. The sound mind is not the mind without thoughts but the one that rests in its own foundation: svastha (literally ‘one who is in oneself’) implies a state of equanimity that requires no external stimulation. The absence of laziness is the active counterpart.

Gurupādāmbujārcaka — ‘one who worships the lotus feet of the Guru’ — is a compound combining guru (heavy teacher, from guru: heavy, profound), pāda (foot, base), ambuja (lotus, born from water), and arcaka (worshipper). Devotion to the Guru is not mere formalism but the receptive openness that allows the energy of transmission to flow: without guru-bhakti, the technique remains inert.

The offering of ‘milk or nectar’ as alternatives for the Vajrolī practice preceding this verse reflects two levels of practice: milk (kṣīra) is the purified substitute for the practitioner not working with sexual fluids, while nectar (amṛta) is the final substance generated by complete practice. This level-graduated pedagogy is characteristic of the Śivasaṃhitā and distinguishes between practitioners working with external elements (dravya) and those who have fully internalized the practice.