Śiva Sūtra 2.02 — prayatnaḥ sādhakaḥ¶

1. Sūtra Number and Working Title¶

Sūtra II.2 (also cited as 2/2 in Dyczkowski's edition)

Working Title: The Strike of Awareness — Effort as the Swift Seizure of Mantra's Initial Moment

This sūtra is the operative engine of the Second Awakening's mantra block. Where 2.01 established the ontological ground — mind is mantra — 2.02 supplies what actually makes that identification realizable rather than conceptual: a precise, unhesitating mode of awareness-effort that seizes the first unfolding of mantra-intent before discursive proliferation fractures it.

2. Root Text¶

Devanāgarī:

प्रयत्नः साधकः

IAST:

prayatnaḥ sādhakaḥ

3. Literal Rendering¶

Literal: Effort (is) the accomplisher / that which attains the goal.

Readable translation (Singh): "Zealous and spontaneous close application is effective in fulfilment."

Readable translation (Lakshmanjoo): "For such a yogī, pauseless effort brings about his attainment of God consciousness."

Readable translation (Dyczkowski): "Effort is that which attains the goal."

Translation pressure points:

prayatnaḥ must not be read as generic striving, willpower, or prolonged exertion. The commentators are unanimous that the term names a specific, precisely calibrated mode of awareness: natural/spontaneous close application (prakṛtistha), fired by intense desire, swift enough to seize the initial moment of mantra-intent. Any translation that allows the reader to substitute "hard work" or "determination" has already broken the doctrine.
sādhakaḥ carries more than "practitioner." Etymologically, it means "that which accomplishes / makes effective." The sūtra is not describing who does the practice; it is saying what achieves the goal — namely, this precise mode of effort, and nothing else.
uccāra (appearing in the activated Tantrasadbhāva citation) does not mean vocal utterance or pronunciation. Singh's note is definitive: ut + cāra = "moving up, rising." It is the upward movement of mind toward the light of Supreme I-consciousness. Any phonetic reading collapses the entire internal mechanism.

4. Sanskrit Seed¶

prayatna — not generic trying; the spontaneous close application that seizes the prathamābhāsa, the first flash of mantra-intent
sādhaka — here used as an attribute of prayatna, not as a noun for the practitioner: the effort that accomplishes
vṛtti — the operative function or mode; prayatna is the vṛtti of a cultivated vitality, not an independently willed act
nibhalana — repeated meditation; the practice that generates the vitality of which prayatna is the function
pratyayaikātanatā — the flow of one-pointed concentration; the phenomenological target-state that the right kind of effort produces
tādātmya — identity; the concentration is not on mantra as an object but on identity between the Self and the essential nature of mantra
svasvabhāva — inherent nature; mantra is the svasvabhāva of the power of consciousness, not a phonetic instrument
manana — constant contemplation; the means by which the yogin abides established on Śiva's plane
uccāra — upward movement of awareness toward the highest light; distinguished from verbal utterance
anusaṁdhitsā — holding the very beginning point of a movement with awareness; Lakshmanjoo's concrete operationalization of "catching the initial moment"
icchataḥ — with intense desire; the qualifying pressure that makes effort "natural onset" rather than artificial forcing
akṛita — artificial, constructed; the warning-marker for the wrong mode of effort
bindu / mano-bindu — the luminous point; target of the awareness-strike in the metaphors
cittattva — conscious reality; the realized goal: recognition of the Self as conscious reality, not improved concentration

5. Shared Core¶

Mantra is not an instrument the practitioner wields from outside. As Kṣemarāja establishes from the Trikasāra and as all three carriers confirm: mantra is the inherent nature (svasvabhāva) of the power of consciousness itself. By concentrating on it constantly (manana), the yogin abides on Śiva's plane and comes to know ultimate reality (paramārtha). This is the ontological ground within which the sūtra operates.

Within that ground, the teaching of 2.02 converges on a single practical hinge. Prayatna succeeds — becomes the thing that actually accomplishes the goal — precisely because it is aimed at the initial moment: the first unfolding of mantra-intent, before thought proliferates into the subject/object/means complex. That first moment, charged with the power of mantra as a whole, is where the distance between contemplator and deity can be decisively collapsed.

The mechanism by which prayatna works is not willpower increasing over time. It is a specific sequence that all sources confirm: repeated withdrawal from extroverted activity generates a quieting of diversified awareness; from that quieting arises a one-pointed flow (pratyayaikātanatā) centered on the identity (tādātmya) between the Self and the essential nature of mantra. The effort is "most excellent" because it is what activates and rides exactly this sequence.

6. Live Alternatives¶

Three voices illuminate the same mechanism from three positions in the hierarchy. They do not contradict each other; they address different questions.

Dyczkowski (carrying Kṣemarāja's architectonic framing — WHY the effort is the highest means):

The prayatna praised here is "most excellent" because it is the operative vṛtti of a living vitality that the prior sūtras prepared. This vitality is generated by nibhalana — repeated meditation — and its function is to penetrate the nature of mind. Dyczkowski carries the full causal sequence from Kṣemarāja: the effort begins with the repeated reversal of extroversion; that reversal produces cessation of the diversified awareness in which subject, object, and means are held as distinct; from that cessation arises a one-pointed flow; that flow is centered on identity with the essential nature of mantra, which is consciousness-power. The Trikasāra citation makes the ontological stake explicit: mantra is the inherent nature of the power of consciousness, and constant manana establishes the yogin on Śiva's own plane of being.

Kṣemarāja (as preserved by Singh and summarized in Dyczkowski — WHERE to strike and HOW fast):

The spontaneous force that prayatna requires is aimed at a specific temporal target: the initial moment in which the yogin becomes intent on contemplating mantra. In that first unfolding of thought, charged with mantra-power, the possibility of oneness with the deity exists complete. What is required is the capacity to catch this fleeting moment "in a single, swift movement of awareness." The Tantrasadbhāva supplies the two metaphors that Kṣemarāja and all carriers invoke: the bird of prey that glimpses meat in the sky and, with speed natural to itself, catches it immediately — without circling, without hesitation; and the arrow drawn with force on the bow, which flies in a single undeflectable flight to its target. The bindu, the luminous point of consciousness, is struck by the force of uccāra (awareness rising toward the highest light) in exactly that single decisive arc.

Lakshmanjoo (execution standard and concrete body-level instruction — HOW to do it without betraying it):

Lakshmanjoo intensifies prayatna as "pauseless effort" and gives the practice its most concrete handle. Begin any movement — any movement at all — and stop. Hold the very beginning point of that movement with awareness. This is anusaṁdhitsā: the holding of the first instant before the movement completes, before the intention dissolves into the next phase of activity. This bodily operationalization is the practitioner's way of approximating the "initial moment" that Kṣemarāja identifies as the precise target of the awareness-strike.

He also supplies the failure warning at its full severity: "If the yogī is not successful in one push, he will not be successful at all." This is not a motivational statement. It is a structural description of how the practice works: the arrow either flies from the fully drawn bow or it does not fly at all. There is no gradual accumulation. And the prerequisite underlying this "one thrust" standard is not willpower but vow-level determination from Spanda Kārikā 2.6: the resolve that the effort will continue "until I attain the state of God consciousness or I will leave my body." Without that rooted longing, effort becomes ordinary strain.

7. What Is At Stake¶

The choice between reading prayatna as generic effort and reading it as the precisely calibrated, initial-moment awareness-strike is not a semantic subtlety. It changes the entire practice.

If prayatna means ordinary perseverance, the practitioner will work harder over time, refine the mantra's pronunciation, and produce exactly what Kṣemarāja warns against: extended, discursive, proliferating engagement with mantra's phonetic surface. The initial moment has already been missed.

If prayatna means the swift and singular first seizure of the mantra's arising, the entire work is concentrated into a single decisive flash — and the one-pointed flow (pratyayaikātanatā) that Dyczkowski describes can actually arise, because it is grounded in tādātmya (identity) rather than in sustained attention to sound-as-object.

The additional stake: if uccāra is read as vocal chanting, the practitioner chants. If uccāra is read correctly (as Singh's note insists) — as the upward movement of awareness toward Supreme I-consciousness — the same syllable marks an internal energetic ascent that has nothing to do with phonetics.

8. Darśana / Philosophical Mechanics¶

The philosophical position of 2.02 follows directly from 2.01's claim that citta is mantra. If mind is already mantra — already consciousness contracted toward its own inherent power — then "effort" cannot mean accumulating something from outside. It must mean the capacity to catch and ride the power that is already there, before contraction (through discursive proliferation) reasserts itself.

This gives prayatna its precise doctrinal structure. The Trikasāra framing is decisive: "Mantra is said to be the inherent nature (svasvabhāva) of the power of consciousness, for by concentrating (manana) on it constantly the yogī abides well established on Śiva's plane of being. It is by virtue of this that those yogis who apply their minds to Yoga know the true nature of ultimate reality (paramārtha)." The effort, then, is not directed at an external object. It is directed at a recognition of what mantra already is — the power of consciousness in its own nature.

Dyczkowski's summary of Kṣemarāja's commentary articulates the mechanism precisely: this effort "is the flow of one-pointed concentration (pratyayaikātanatā) centred on the identity (tādātmya) between the Self in the form of the object of meditation and the essential nature of Mantra as described above." Heralded — preceded necessarily — by "the cessation of the diversified awareness that subject, object and means of knowledge are distinct," this flow is "attained by withdrawing the mind repeatedly from its extroverted activity."

This is a four-stage sequence that must not be compressed into a single phrase:

Repeated withdrawal from extroverted, outward-running activity (the practice engine driven by nibhalana)
Cessation of diversified awareness — the split of subject / object / means dissolves
Arising of one-pointed flow (pratyayaikātanatā)
Centered on identity (tādātmya) with the essential nature of mantra as consciousness-power

The goal of all this is cittattva: realization of the Self as conscious reality — not improved concentration, not enhanced mantra experience, but the recognition of the Self as the knowing, conscious ground within which mantra and meditator are not two.

9. Lineage / Oral Force¶

Lakshmanjoo preserves two things that no printed commentary delivers with equal force: the concrete body-level handle and the undeflectable warning.

The concrete handle is anusaṁdhitsā. "Just begin with some movement, any movement, and stop. Hold the beginning point of that movement with awareness." This is not a preparatory technique for beginners. It is the phenomenological translation of Kṣemarāja's "initial moment" into something a practitioner can actually locate in the body, in real time, without waiting for a special mantra-experience to occur. The beginning of any movement — lifting the hand, standing up, drawing a breath — carries the identical structure: a first instant before the movement has committed itself to a trajectory. Hold exactly there.

The warning carries full oral gravity: "If the yogī is not successful in one push, he will not be successful at all. It must be attained in one thrust of awareness." Read against the Tantrasadbhāva metaphors (the vulture, the arrow), this is not severity for severity's sake. It is structural honesty about what kind of act this is. The vulture that hesitates has already lost the meat. The arrow that pauses mid-flight does not exist. The sūtra describes a mode of awareness that is by nature singular, unhesitating, and complete — the opposite of iterative accumulation.

The Spanda Kārikā 2.6 citation adds the prerequisite that makes the "one thrust" standard actually achievable: vow-level determination. "The yogī must first possess such a determined longing that it will lead to the resolution, 'I will sit until I attain the state of God consciousness or I will leave my body.'" The effort must not be passive. It must not be intermittent. It must not be polite. Active effort "itself is God consciousness" — the active character of the awareness-strike is already the beginning of the realization it aims at.

Also preserved by Lakshmanjoo: "In its true sense, the knowledge of awareness is the state of mantra." This anti-phonetic line — mantra's real being is jñāna, knowing, awareness — closes the arc that the Trikasāra opened: mantra as consciousness-power, not as phonetic sequence.

10. Metaphysical Architecture¶

The Tantrasadbhāva's two metaphors are not illustrative; they carry doctrine.

The kite / vulture: "just as a bird of prey, glimpsing in the sky a piece of meat, quickly catches it with the speed natural to it." The speed is natural to it — not imposed, not learned, not effortful in the ordinary sense. The bird does not deliberate about catching; catching is what it is. Kṣemarāja's prayatna is modeled on exactly this: the force of awareness is spontaneous, arising from what the yogin's cultivated vitality already is, not from additional exertion layered on top. The qualifier in Singh's translation — "natural onset" — is the load-bearing word. The prey is "the light of consciousness" (mano-bindu). What is being seized is the luminous point at which consciousness, contracted into mantra-intent, first becomes available for recognition.

The archer: "just as an arrow fixed to a bow and drawn with great force flies forth." This image carries a different pressure: the force that is fully drawn before release. The bow is drawn with great force — but that force is concentrated, stored, aimed. The arrow's flight is not slow; it is the instant release of readiness. Lakshmanjoo's gloss: "by just one thrust of awareness." The bindu flies forward by the force of uccāra — by the upward-rising movement of consciousness toward its own highest light.

Together, the metaphors define a mode of awareness that is simultaneously: - instant (the vulture does not circle) - complete (the arrow does not pause) - natural (speed that belongs to what the yogin is, not what they are forcing) - aimed (the luminous point, the initial mantra-moment, not the whole phonetic landscape)

This is the metaphysical architecture of "effort" in this sūtra. The entire rest of the chapter's practical content derives from these images, properly understood.

11. Practice / How to Work This Sūtra¶

What to notice:

The initial moment is already happening. Before every action, before every breath-cycle, before the first word of every mantra-recitation, there is an instant in which the intention has formed but has not yet committed itself to a trajectory. Most practitioners flow straight through this instant without registering it. The practice of 2.02 begins with the capacity to notice that the instant is there.

What to do:

Execute anusaṁdhitsā as Lakshmanjoo instructs: begin any movement and stop at the very beginning. Literally any movement. The lifting of a hand, the transition from stillness to walking, the first pulse of an inhalation. Stop in that first instant — before the movement has established itself — and hold awareness at the very beginning point. This is not suppression of the movement. It is location of the first instant before proliferation.

When you work with mantra directly: the moment mantra-intent (the impulse to contemplate the mantra) arises, that first unfolding — before the syllables have taken over, before the mind begins its normal recitation-track — is the target. Catch it there. Let awareness strike the mantra in that first instant with the speed that naturally belongs to it, as Kṣemarāja says — "in a single, swift movement of awareness."

The prior cultivation that makes this possible is nibhalana: repeated meditation, repeated withdrawal from outward-running activity. The capacity to seize the initial moment is not a skill acquired by reading about it. It is the vṛtti (operative function) of a vitality that develops through that repeated reversal of extroversion. Practice the reversal — away from outward activity, back to the interior — and the capacity for the swift seizure develops as a natural consequence.

Justified experiment (from the packet):

During any ordinary activity, choose a moment of transition — standing up from sitting, beginning to speak, turning attention toward a task — and stop at the very first instant of that transition. Hold awareness precisely there, in the beginning point, before the activity has completed its initial phase. Notice what is present at that first instant: the same structure Kṣemarāja calls the "initial unfolding of thought, charged with the power of mantra." This is not a metaphysical claim. It is a phenomenological structure available for direct examination.

The likely mistake:

The most common failure is to treat prayatna as sustained intensity over time — to work harder at mantra over a longer period, refining pronunciation, increasing repetitions, deepening concentration through accumulation. This is exactly what the doctrine forbids. The initial moment is not located somewhere in the middle of a long practice session. It is located at the very beginning, and it recurs at every beginning. Missing it at minute one means the whole session runs on the surface of mantra's phonetic form rather than catching its power.

A second mistake, named explicitly: allowing the effort to become artificial (akṛita). If the practice feels like forcing — grim, willed, separate from natural longing — the mode of effort has already shifted into ordinary exertion. The qualifier icchataḥ (with intense desire) and the instruction that effort must originate "from the center of the heart" mark the correct interior atmosphere. Vow-level determination is not the same as grim effort; it is a settled resolution that the practice will be done without remainder.

A third and structural mistake: expecting gradual progress across repeated failed attempts. "If the yogī is not successful in one push, he will not be successful at all." This is not nihilism — it names what kind of act this is. If the practice is building toward the initial moment over multiple sessions, the initial moment is being treated as an achievement at the end of a sequence. It is not. It is the very first instant, always available, always already there.

12. Direct Witness¶

The initial moment exists. It is not theoretical.

Right now, before any deliberate action, there is already the first arising of intention — the first pulse of awareness-toward before anything has been said or done. It is faster than thought and yet available to attention if attention is swift enough. The entire teaching of this sūtra is aimed at that first pulse.

The question the sūtra poses directly: can you locate it? Not in a special meditative state but in the ordinary arising of any impulse — including the impulse to understand this sentence.

The bird does not first plan the catch. The arrow does not hesitate at the moment of release. Is there an awareness that is already that swift, already that natural, already that aimed — not constructed now, but recognized as already the case?

13. Trap of the Intellect¶

The central trap is the conversion of prayatna into a program. The practitioner reads the schema — repeated withdrawal from extroversion → cessation of diversified cognition → one-pointed flow → identity — and treats these as stages to work through sequentially over time. They are not. They are the description of what happens when the initial moment is actually caught in the right kind of effort. The sequence describes the event; it is not a curriculum.

Related trap: intellectualizing anusaṁdhitsā. Lakshmanjoo's instruction is not an philosophical concept. The beginning point of a movement is a specific phenomenological location available to awareness right now. Thinking about it rather than doing it is precisely the discursive proliferation that prayatna is designed to arrest.

A subtler trap: substituting the vivid metaphors (vulture, arrow) for the practice while thinking one has understood. The metaphors are pedagogically brilliant. They also have a way of occupying the mind with their own imagery. The vulture catches the meat; the instruction is to be the catching, not to contemplate the image of catching.

The most pervasive trap: treating the one-thrust standard as an invitation to self-judgment (failing because one "didn't get it in one try"). Lakshmanjoo's statement is not about how often to practice but about what kind of act each attempt must be. Every arising of mantra-intent is a new initial moment. Each new beginning is the one opportunity this moment offers.

14. Upāya Alignment¶

Clearly Śāktopāya.

This sūtra operates in the energetic register: the operative vṛtti of a cultivated vitality aimed at identity with mantra's essential nature. The means is awareness itself, operating at the level of śakti — not through the elaborate rituals, breath-regulation, and physical techniques of āṇavopāya, and not through the immediate, effortless recognition of śāmbhavopāya.

The qualifier that matters: the effort required is still effort — it must be elicited, cultivated, fired by intense desire, rooted in a vow-level resolution. It is not the spontaneous flash of recognition that śāmbhavopāya describes. It is the maximum possible compression of awareness into a single precise act — which is śāktopāya's genius: effort refined until it is indistinguishable from spontaneity, without actually becoming effortless.

The Spanda Kārikā 2.6 citation underscores this: the determined longing ("I will sit until I attain or leave my body") itself constitutes the operative condition. Not grace descending without cultivation; not mechanical technique accumulating over time — but concentrated, heart-born, natural-onset awareness operating at the speed of its own nature.

15. Confidence / Source Basis¶

High confidence.

All three carriers — Dyczkowski (carrying Kṣemarāja / Trikasāra / Tantrasadbhāva), Singh (carrying Kṣemarāja's commentary directly), and Lakshmanjoo (oral transmission with Spanda Kārikā activation) — converge on the same core mechanism: swift, natural, one-pointed awareness catching the initial mantra-moment and collapsing contemplator/deity. There is no significant doctrinal divergence among them, only a difference of emphasis and register.

Scope limitation noted: The staged excerpt does not explicitly surface a distinct Bhāskara-vs-Kṣemarāja divergence in this sūtra. The architectonic framing is primarily via Kṣemarāja (through Dyczkowski and Singh). Bhāskara's distinct reading, if it exists, is not clearly marked here; the chapter does not overclaim it.

What is inferred: The identification of prayatna as the vṛtti of cultivated vitality (rather than an independently motivated act) is Dyczkowski's formulation of a Kṣemarāja position; it is marked as such, not as direct sūtra-commentary.

Primary carriers: Dyczkowski (architectonic frame), Singh (Kṣemarāja's commentary on the initial moment and uccāra), Lakshmanjoo (anusaṁdhitsā, one-thrust warning, Spanda Kārikā 2.6).

16. Contextual Glossary¶

prayatna — here: the specific mode of awareness-effort that seizes the prathamābhāsa (initial moment of mantra-intent) in a single swift movement, before discursive thought fractures the opening. Distinguished from generic striving, mechanical exertion, or sustained concentration.

sādhaka — used here as predicate of prayatna: "that which accomplishes the goal." The goal is tādātmya (identity with the essential nature of mantra = Self as conscious reality).

vṛtti — operative function or mode. Prayatna is the vṛtti of a vitality cultivated by nibhalana (repeated meditation). Not a separately produced act of will.

nibhalana — repeated meditation; the practice that generates the interior vitality from which prayatna naturally arises. The engine beneath the engine.

pratyayaikātanatā — the flow of one-pointed concentration; the phenomenological state that correct prayatna produces. Distinguished from focused attention on a single object — this is a continuous non-discursive stream centered on identity.

tādātmya — identity; specifically, here, the identity between the Self (as "object" of meditation) and the essential nature of mantra as consciousness-power. The pratyayaikātanatā is not mere focus; it is concentration on this particular identity relationship.

svasvabhāva — inherent nature. Mantra's svasvabhāva is the power of consciousness itself. This is why prayatna succeeds: it contacts what mantra already is, rather than accumulating phonetic repetition around it.

uccāra — etymologically, ut + cāra: moving up, rising. In this context: the upward movement of mind toward the light of Supreme I-consciousness. Not vocal utterance. Distinguished explicitly from pronunciation. The arrow-flight of awareness toward the bindu.

anusaṁdhitsā — holding the very beginning point of a movement with awareness; Lakshmanjoo's concrete handle for "catching the initial moment." The act of stopping at the first instant of any movement and maintaining awareness precisely there.

bindu / mano-bindu — the luminous point; the target of the awareness-strike in both Tantrasadbhāva metaphors. What the awareness catches is not diffuse "light" but the specific point of consciousness-intensity at which mantra-power is concentrated in its initial arising.

icchataḥ — with intense desire; the qualifying condition that distinguishes natural-onset prayatna from artificial effort. The effort must arise from longing, not from technique.

akṛita — artificial, constructed; the failure-mode of effort in which the practitioner forces awareness rather than releasing it at the speed natural to cultivated vitality.

cittattva — conscious reality; the goal of this practice: recognition of the Self as the conscious, knowing ground — not an improved state of mind, but the realization of what mind is in its essential nature.

17. High-Impact Endnotes¶

[1] The Trikasāra citation and its doctrinal weight. Dyczkowski notes that Kṣemarāja activates the Trikasāra (Essence of Trika, six thousand verses) to establish what mantra is before explaining how prayatna works. This sequencing is deliberate: the efficacy of the effort depends on the practitioner grasping the ontological status of mantra — inherent nature of consciousness-power, not a phonetic formula. A practitioner who begins prayatna without this ontological grounding is not doing what Kṣemarāja describes; they are doing something externally similar but internally structurally different.

[2] Uccāra and the risk of phonetic reduction. Singh's note is so unambiguous it is worth quoting directly: "Uccāra in this context does not mean utterance or pronunciation. Uccāra literally means ut + cara, moving up, rising. It is in this etymological sense that the word has been used here. It means the movement of the mind upwards i.e. towards the light of the supreme I-consciousness." The note exists precisely because the ordinary Sanskrit meaning (utterance) is the natural drift. In a mantra context, a reader will instinctively read uccāra as vocal recitation. The note, and the doctrine, override this entirely.

[3] The Spanda Kārikā 2.6 citation and prerequisite structure. Lakshmanjoo's activation of Spanda Kārikā 2.6 is not inspirational color. It describes a prerequisite condition. The "one thrust" standard of prayatna requires a ground of vow-level determination to be structurally possible without degenerating into strain. The practitioner who attempts the "one thrust" from a position of conditional, intermittent commitment will experience each failure as proof of inadequacy. The practitioner who has established the resolution Lakshmanjoo names experiences each attempt as a complete and full effort — regardless of what arises. This prerequisite belongs to practice logic, not to hagiography.

[4] 2.02 as the operative engine for 2.01 and prelude to 2.03. The cluster memo's map is essential for reading this sūtra in context. 2.01 established the ontological identity of citta with mantra; without 2.02's operative engine, that claim remains philosophical — a position believed rather than realized. Conversely, 2.02's prayatna — correctly executed — generates the one-pointed flow (pratyayaikātanatā) that is itself the threshold of what 2.03 calls mantrarahasya: the secret inner vitality of mantra where the phonetic form (vācaka) dissolves into the luminous Being of Knowledge. The three sūtras form a single operative arc: ontological ground → awareness-engine → realization of mantra's inner life.

[5] "Apprehension of the Self constitutes the real being of the mantra." This citation (from an unnamed source, preserved by both Singh and Lakshmanjoo as "in some other place, it is also said" / "elsewhere also it has been said") is the strongest anti-phonetic statement in the cluster. Mantra's "real being" (sattā) is jñāna — knowing, apprehension, awareness. This is doctrinal: the phonetic form is the vācaka (denoter), not the reality. The reality is the knowledge/awareness the mantra points to. The practitioner who treats mantra as a phoneme and its repetition as the practice has not yet reached what this sūtra describes. The practice begins only when awareness meets mantra at the level of what mantra denotes — the Self — rather than at the level of its phonetic form.