The Threefold Void (Verse 45, Dhāraṇā 22)¶
1. Exercise Title & Verse¶
The Threefold Void (Verse 45, Dhāraṇā 22)
2. Sanskrit (IAST)¶
pṛṣṭhaśūnyaṃ mūlaśūnyaṃ hṛcchūnyaṃ bhāvayet sthiram | yugapan nirvikalpatvān nirvikalpodayaḥ tataḥ || 45 ||
3. English (Literal)¶
One should steadily contemplate the void above, the void at the root, and the void in the heart simultaneously. Then, through freedom from conceptual constructions, the nonconceptual state arises.
4. Main Commentary (Bhāṣya)¶
Padārtha. Pṛṣṭha-śūnya is the upper space, the openness above the body or head. Mūla-śūnya is the space at the root, the lower foundation. Hṛc-chūnya is the space in the heart region, not emotion but the central locus where experience is gathered and known. Bhāvayet means one should contemplate, evoke, or make present in awareness. Sthiram matters: not a passing glimpse, not rapid alternation, but stable holding. Yugapan means all at once. This is the verse’s hinge. The three spaces are not visited in sequence. They are held together simultaneously. Nirvikalpatva means freedom from vikalpa, from the mind’s dividing activity. Nirvikalpodaya is not a dead blank. It is the arising of unconstructed awareness itself.
Anvaya. The sentence runs plainly: "Steadily contemplate, all at once, the space above, the space at the root, and the space in the heart. From that condition of freedom from conceptual division, the nonconceptual state dawns."
Tatparya. This verse is the new turn after verse 44. Verse 44 works with two poles, above and below, until bodily dependence loosens and the body is no longer the reference-point. Verse 45 does not merely add a third location for decoration. It completes a triad. The upper space, lower space, and heart-space can be read, as Śivopādhyāya notes, as knower, known, and knowing. So the practice now reaches deeper than bodily de-localization. It empties the whole structure by which experience is divided into subject, object, and cognition. That is why the result is named more sharply here: not simply a voided mind, but the arising of the unconstructed state. The verse clarifies that when the triad is held together in one stable spaciousness, conceptual construction loses its support.
Sādhana. Sit upright and let the breath remain natural. First recognize three openings: above the head, at the root below, and in the heart-center. Establish them lightly one by one only to know the territory. Then stop moving among them. Hold the three as one simultaneous field. Do not strain the eyes upward, clamp the pelvic floor, or press into the chest. The practice is not muscular. If the Śivopādhyāya reading helps, let the upper space stand for the knower-side, the lower for the known field, and the heart for the act of knowing itself. Then let all three be equally empty, equally open, equally unsupported. When the mind stops stitching them back into a subject here, an object there, and a cognition in between, nirvikalpodaya begins to show itself.
5. Jaideva Singh — The Logical¶
The syntax is clean and strong. Pṛṣṭhaśūnyaṃ, mūlaśūnyaṃ, and hṛcchūnyaṃ are the three accusative objects governed by bhāvayet. Sthiram qualifies the act of contemplation: it must be steady. Nirvikalpatvāt is an ablative of cause, "because of freedom from vikalpas," and nirvikalpodayaḥ is the resulting emergence of the nonconceptual state. Singh preserves Śivopādhyāya’s doctrinal key: the upper void corresponds to pramātṛ (the knower), the root-void to prameya (the known object-field), and the heart-void to pramāṇa (the means or act of knowing). The verse therefore does not merely map three bodily regions. It voids the epistemic triad itself. Singh classifies the dhāraṇā as śāktopāya.
6. Swami Lakshmanjoo — The Lineage¶
Take yugapat seriously. Do not go top, then bottom, then heart, and call that simultaneity. The awareness must hold all three together. Lakshmanjoo gives the practical key by naming the three domains directly: above is the field of subjective consciousness, below is the objective field, and in the heart is the cognitive state between them. All three must be seen as void at once, all-round in the body. This is the correction beyond verse 44. There the body had to go missing between two voids. Here the whole subject-object-cognition arrangement must be emptied together. When that triad is not being rebuilt, thoughtlessness is revealed. In the detailed commentary preserved in the local extract, he explicitly classifies this verse as śāktopāya.
7. Mark Dyczkowski & Christopher Wallis — Context & Philology¶
Wallis gives direct verse-specific support in his official article, "Vijñaana-bhairava-tantra verses 43-48: the Spaciousness practices" (https://hareesh.org/blog/2025/5/1/vijaana-bhairava-tantra-verses-43-48-the-spaciousness-practices, 2025-05-01). He glosses the verse in exactly the terms needed here: upper space, root space, and heart space are to be held steadily and simultaneously; nirvikalpatvāt means freedom from mental constructs and dichotomizing beliefs; nirvikalpodayaḥ is the arising of the unconstructed state. He also preserves Śivopādhyāya’s note that the three spaces correspond to knower, knowing, and known. That is the clearest evidence for why verse 45 is more than verse 44 plus one extra point.
Dyczkowski’s official PDF translation (https://www.anuttaratrikakula.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Vijnaanabhairava.pdf) directly supports the verse reading but does not extend it into a full commentary. It confirms the threefold structure, the firmness of contemplation, and the dawning of the thought-free state. No stronger verse-specific Dyczkowski exposition was found in this pass. Wallis additionally labels the verse an āṇava-upāya practice for experienced practitioners; that is useful contextual evidence, but the primary upāya judgment for this file remains grounded in Singh and Lakshmanjoo.
8. Daniel Odier — The Somatic Grounding¶
Make the three spaces bodily. Feel the root as an opening downward, the heart as a central chamber, and the region above the head as an opening upward. Do not imagine abstract emptiness from a distance. The heart is not a third dot added to the line; it is the lived inner chamber that lets above and below become one field. When these three cavities are felt simultaneously, the body is no longer experienced as a sealed mass between top and bottom.
9. Paul Reps — The "Sudden Hit"¶
Put mindstuff in such inexpressible fineness above, below, and in your heart.
10. Upāya Type¶
Śāktopāya is the safest primary classification. Singh states this directly. Lakshmanjoo’s detailed exposition in the local extract also ends by classifying the verse as śāktopāya. Wallis’s official article labels the practice āṇava-upāya for experienced practitioners, which suggests that its spatial supports can be described from a more embodied entry-point. Even so, under the project rule of grounding classification first in Singh or Lakshmanjoo, this verse should be published as śāktopāya.
11. Resonance Check (Adhikāra)¶
This dhāraṇā suits a practitioner who can hold multiple loci of awareness without agitation and without turning the practice into mental choreography. It especially fits someone already able to sense space directly and ready to work on the collapse of the subject-object split rather than on breath mechanics alone.
12. The "What Else?" — The Pitfall¶
The trap is to flick attention rapidly among the above-head space, the root, and the heart and pretend that fast rotation is simultaneity. Then the mind is busier than before. If the chest tightens, the pelvic floor grips, or the forehead strains upward, the verse has already been replaced by effortful visualization.
13. Verse-Specific Glossary¶
- pṛṣṭha-śūnya: the upper space. Here it is best read as the openness above the body or head, not merely the physical back.
- mūla-śūnya: the root-space at the lower base of the body, the lower pole paired with the upper opening.
- hṛc-chūnya: the heart-space. Here it means the central locus of cognition or lived interiority, not sentiment.
- nirvikalpatva: the condition of being free from conceptual division, especially the splitting of experience into subject, object, and means of knowing.
- nirvikalpodaya: the arising or dawning of unconstructed awareness once that triadic split is no longer being maintained.