Śivasaṃhitā 4.83

The explicit mention of vāmamārga — ‘the left-hand path’, the tantrism of left-handed rites using the five makāras (wine, meat, fish, parched grain, copulation) — is significant: the Śivasaṃhitā acknowledges that Vajrolī can be practiced within the ritual framework of vāmācāra, not only in ascetic yoga. This inclusivity is the mark of the comprehensive tantric tradition.

Vāmamārga — literally ‘the left-hand path’ — designates in tantric taxonomy the tradition including rituals with substances and acts considered impure (aśuci) by Brahmanical orthodoxy. Vāma can mean ‘left’, ‘contrary, opposite’, or ‘beautiful, desirable’; this polysemy is intentional. The path that appears contrary to orthodoxy is actually the one leading most directly to the center.

The instruction to nivāraya (retain, contain, from ni-vṛ-, to surround, to close) the liṅga even in the vāmamārga context underscores that bindu retention is the axis of practice regardless of the external ritual framework. What distinguishes the sādhaka from the mere practitioner of pleasures is precisely this economy of bindu: the same physical act has a completely different quality when governed by conscious retention versus surrender to dispersal.