Śivasaṃhitā 5.196

Meditation «outside the brahmāṇḍa» is an instruction that transcends cosmology itself: beyond the universe’s egg, the ātman contemplates its own image as a reflection of pure consciousness. This is the standpoint of the videha-mukta (liberated from the body), the perspective that observes even the totality of manifestation as an object.

Brahmāṇḍa = Brahman’s egg (brahma = absolute, aṇḍa = egg), bāhya = exterior, outside, sañcintya = carefully contemplating (sam = completely, cintya = that which should be thought), svapratīka = one’s own image or symbol (sva = own, pratīka = symbol, image, effigy). The siddhi of attraction (ākarṣaṇa) that emerges from mantra is one of tantrism’s six magical powers.

Contemplation of the svapratīka outside the cosmos is a practice of positive depersonalization: the practitioner observes themselves as the cosmos sees them, from outside all limited identification. This vision from «outside the brahmāṇḍa» corresponds to what the perennial philosophy calls the Absolute’s perspective: the viewpoint of pure consciousness not contained in any of its manifestations.