Remembering Union Without the Embrace (Verse 70, Dhāraṇā 47)¶
1. Exercise Title & Verse¶
Remembering Union Without the Embrace (Verse 70, Dhāraṇā 47)
2. Sanskrit (IAST)¶
lehanāmanthanākoṭaiḥ strīsukhasya bharāt smṛteḥ | śaktyabhāve'pi deveśi bhaved ānandasaṃplavaḥ || 70 ||
3. English (Literal)¶
O Lady of the gods, even in the absence of the woman, through the full force of remembering sexual pleasure in acts such as kissing, rubbing, and pressing, there arises a flood of bliss.
4. Main Commentary (Bhāṣya)¶
Padārtha. Lehanā-manthanā-koṭaiḥ gathers erotic acts such as kissing, licking, rubbing, pressing, and the like. The point is not to catalogue technique but to indicate the remembered field of sensual intimacy. Strī-sukhasya means the pleasure of sexual union with a woman or partner. Bharāt smṛteḥ is the real hinge: not a passing recollection, but memory brought to full intensity, charged enough to make the felt delight rise again. Śakty-abhāve'pi means even when the partner is absent; here śakti is being used in the immediate erotic sense, while still allowing the verse to imply conscious power as the deeper source. Ānanda-saṃplavaḥ is not a minor pleasantness but an inundation, a surge, a flooding of bliss.
Anvaya. The sentence runs plainly: O Goddess, even when the woman is absent, if the pleasure of union is remembered in full force through such acts as kissing and pressing, a flood of bliss arises.
Tatparya. Verse 69 pointed to delight in the midst of actual union. Verse 70 makes the sharper claim: the delight can arise even when the partner is not present. That is the new contribution of the verse. It shows more decisively that the bliss is not manufactured by the external object; the object was only the occasion on which an already resident delight became manifest. Singh therefore treats the verse as a usable dhāraṇā of śāktopāya: remember intensely enough for the inward bliss to reappear, and contemplate that bliss as native to consciousness. Lakshmanjoo refuses to grant verses 69-70 full process-status and reads them instead as similes for the joy of samādhi, reserving the actual method for verse 71. These two lines need not be flattened into contradiction. They agree on the doctrinal point: the bliss is within. They differ on whether verse 70 itself already gives the operative method or only proves the principle that the next verse will exploit.
Sādhana. If this doorway belongs to your actual experience, let memory evoke a once-known surge of erotic delight. Do not elaborate the story and do not keep rebuilding the absent scene. The moment the remembered current becomes bodily real as warmth, spread, pulse, uplift, or inward flooding, leave the imagery behind and remain with the arising bliss itself. That is the practical pivot of the verse if it is used directly. If one follows Lakshmanjoo's stricter reading, this verse should still be practiced up to that point: enough to verify that bliss can arise without the absent partner. Then the contemplative work is completed by verse 71, tracing that joy back to its source the instant it appears.
5. Jaideva Singh — The Logical¶
The verse is compact but exact. Lehanāmanthanākoṭaiḥ is an instrumental plural, indicating the remembered class of acts through which the pleasure had been known. Bharāt smṛteḥ carries the weight of the instruction: the memory must be full, forceful, and saturating, not faint or incidental. Śaktyabhāve'pi is concessive and decisive. Even in the absence of the woman, bliss arises. Therefore the delight cannot be said to come from the external partner as its true source. Singh's note presses precisely this conclusion: the delight is inherent within, and it is that delight apart from the woman that is to be meditated upon for realization of divine consciousness. On that basis he classifies the verse as śāktopāya.
6. Swami Lakshmanjoo — The Lineage¶
The practical correction is severe: do not mistake verse 70 for permission to indulge remembered pleasure. Lakshmanjoo calls verse 69 the direct way of the sex act and verse 70 the indirect way, yet even with that distinction he still refuses to treat either as a real dhāraṇā. For him they only show what kind of bliss samādhi resembles. His usable hinge is twofold: the recollection must be intensive, bharāt smṛteḥ, not casual and not by-the-way; and awareness is not to remain on the remembered acts or on enjoyment for its own sake. If one wants the actual process, he moves the placement of attention to verse 71: find the point from which the joy rises and melt there.
7. Mark Dyczkowski & Christopher Wallis — Context & Philology¶
Dyczkowski's official PDF gives direct translation support for verse 70: even in the absence of the woman, a flood of bliss arises when memory is fully filled with the joy of erotic acts previously enjoyed. The same PDF places this immediately before verse 71's instruction on meditating on joy as it arises, which helps preserve the sequence and keeps verse 70 distinct from the next verse's more explicit contemplative turn. No fuller official Dyczkowski prose commentary on verse 70 was located. Source: https://www.anuttaratrikakula.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Vijnaanabhairava.pdf
Indirect context: in his official 2016 introduction to the VBT, Wallis explicitly says that verses 70 and 71 direct the practitioner toward the inner feeling of delight triggered by external sexual stimuli rather than toward the stimuli themselves. That supports the verse's central move from occasion to inward affect, but it is not a verse-by-verse commentary. His 2022 introductory essay similarly frames the VBT's sensual and daily-life practices as access points through intensity. Sources: https://hareesh.org/blog/2016/10/6/will-the-real-vijaana-bhairava-please-stand-up ; https://hareesh.org/blog/2022/5/30/vbt-intro-and-verse-one
8. Daniel Odier — The Somatic Grounding¶
Odier's appendix rendering keeps the hinge where it belongs: memory itself can rekindle the sensual surge. Let the remembered pleasure become bodily again, not as fantasy but as immediate radiance in lips, throat, chest, belly, pelvis, or skin. As soon as the current is felt, stop reconstructing the absent partner. Stay with the living wave that has appeared in the body now.
9. Paul Reps — The "Sudden Hit"¶
When eating or drinking, become the taste of the food or drink, and be filled.
10. Upāya Type¶
Śāktopāya in Singh's explicit classification only. Lakshmanjoo does not grant verse 70 independent process-status; for him the operative upāya begins in verse 71.
11. Resonance Check (Adhikāra)¶
This practice suits a practitioner with strong affective recall and enough maturity not to confuse awakened bliss with the urge to repeat or reenact an experience. It requires sensitivity to the body-feeling of delight and the restraint to leave the remembered object once the inward current appears.
12. The "What Else?" — The Pitfall¶
The trap is staying in the remembered erotic scene to intensify fantasy or arousal. Then attention remains glued to the absent object, and the verse collapses into replay. Memory is only the spark; the practice begins when attention leaves the scene and abides in the inward flood of bliss.
13. Verse-Specific Glossary¶
bharāt smṛteḥ: recollection carried in full force, not casual remembering.śaktyabhāva: the absence of the partner; here the external occasion is gone while the bliss still arises.ānanda-saṃplava: a flooding or inundation of bliss, stronger than a mild pleasant feeling.strī-sukha: sexual delight experienced with a woman or partner; in this verse it is an occasion, not the ultimate source.