Śivasaṃhitā 5.27

Three years for the supreme superior, six for the intense degree: the inversion is logical. The adhimātratara practitioner—literally “more than the most intense”—arrives at practice with such accumulated purified saṃskāra that the process considerably accelerates. Sarvayogasya sādhakaḥ—“practitioner of all yogas”—is the defining key: he does not specialize in one path but masters mantrayoga, haṭhayoga, layayoga, and rājayoga as complementary expressions of a single reality.

The distinction between adhimātratama (verse 23) and this adhimātratarojñeya subtly differentiates between the maximum within standard classification and the one who transcends it. Tara (“beyond,” “superior”) is the comparative suffix that elevates this type above all prior categorization. Siddhi in three years versus six speaks not only of speed but of the qualitative nature of the process: for this type, siddhi can arrive at any moment—three years is the conservative horizon.

This timeline progression—twelve years for the mṛdu, six for the adhimātra, three for the adhimātratara—appears in variants in the Gheraṇḍasaṃhitā and Śivasvarodaya. The numerical structure reflects Vedic cosmology of temporal cycles and the idea that the practitioner’s inner time compresses with practice intensity. In contemporary terms, we might speak of the difference between standard learning and the “flow” state of optimal learning.