Śivasaṃhitā 5.25

Adhikārin—“one who has the qualification”—summarizes the entire doctrine of discernment in yogic transmission. Not just anyone has access to higher yoga: adhikāra, qualification earned through prior practice, purification, and genuine orientation, is required. Yathecchāvasthita—“established according to his desire”—describes the advanced practitioner’s freedom to inhabit any condition without being dominated by it: living in the world without belonging to it.

Sthira—a term sharing its root with sthira sukham āsanam of the Yogasūtra—denotes stability not as rigidity but as the firm ground from which consciousness can explore freely. Dhīmān (“wise,” endowed with dhī, the superior intuitive intelligence) distinguishes the advanced practitioner from the merely learned. Kṣamī completes the portrait: patience here is active titikṣā, the capacity to bear the pairs of opposites without losing equanimity.

The categorization of adhikāra (qualification) was a central topic of philosophical debates in medieval India, especially in Vedānta and tantric schools. Mīmāṃsā held that only brāhmaṇas were adhikārin for Vedic rituals; the Śivasaṃhitā—a text of tantric orientation—broadens access based on internal qualities, not birth. This was historically significant in the context of Indian social stratification.