Śivasaṃhitā 5.187

Kailāsa is not in the Himalayas—it is at the crown of the subtle body. This identification is tantrism’s inversion of sacred geography: the great pilgrimage is not external but internal. One who ascends to their own sahasrāra reaches Kailāsa with more certainty than one who climbs the snowy peak. Maheśa (Great Lord) dwells at the summit of one’s own consciousness.

Kailāsa is the name of the Himalayan sacred mountain identified as Śiva’s abode, Maheśa the Great Lord (maha = great, īśa = lord), tiṣṭhati remains/resides. The description of the ideal gṛhastha as «free from merits and demerits» (pāpa-puṇya-vinirmukta) points toward the non-dual realization where the good-evil duality is transcended.

The homology between outer Kailāsa and inner sahasrāra is implicit in tantrism’s system of inner pilgrimage (antaryātra). In the Kulārṇava Tantra and other texts, the body is explicitly mapped as a pilgrimage field where all tīrthas (sacred places) exist as energy centers. The yogi need not travel: each practice is a pilgrimage to the source.