Śivasaṃhitā 5.43

The verb ramate—“delights in,” “takes pleasure in,” from root ram (joy, play, reposing in)—describes a state of mind completely different from habitual concentrative effort. The mind does not wrestle with nāda; it surrenders to it with pleasure. This inflection point—when practice ceases to be work and becomes delight—marks the threshold between dhāraṇā and dhyāna: concentration has transformed into spontaneous meditative flow.

Tatra nāde—“in that nāda”—is the nāda previously described (verse 41): the inner sounds that emerge during śaṇmukhi mudrā. The qualifier bhṛśam (“much,” “deeply”) intensifies the description: this is not superficial mental interest but genuine, almost magnetic attraction. Citta—the mind-consciousness—which habitually leaps from object to object, finds in nāda something that anchors it naturally without coercion.

Layayoga bases its entire method on this property of nāda: its capacity to absorb the mind (mano-laya) more effectively than any other concentration object. The Haṭhapradīpikā describes it thus: just as a serpent charmed by the flutist’s music forgets to bite, so the mind charmed by nāda forgets its wandering nature. This verse captures exactly that initial moment of enchantment where absorption begins to happen by itself.