Khecari — The State of Shiva — Shiva Sutra 2.5

This sutra marks the maturation promised in the previous one: when the embryonic, dream-like expansion of consciousness matures into 'svābhāvika,' spontaneous and natural, Shuddhavidya (true knowledge), the result is khecari — not primarily a physical yogic technique of the tongue, but here understood by Kshemaraja as the state in which awareness moves freely (carati) through the space (kha) of pure consciousness, unobstructed by the divisions of subject and object. He is careful to distinguish this esoteric khecari from mere hatha-yogic khecari mudra involving the tongue and palate; while the latter may support the process, the true khecari of the Shiva Sutras is a state of being wherein the yogi perceives the entire universe as pervaded by, and identical with, his own consciousness-space. Crucially, this arising must be 'svābhāvika' — natural and spontaneous, not artificially forced — meaning that once the effortful practices of prayatna and mantra-absorption have matured, the recognition dawns of itself, echoing the sudden udyama of Shambhavopaya even within the more gradual context of Shaktopaya. Kshemaraja identifies this state explicitly as 'śivāvasthā,' the very state of Shiva, indicating full completion of the process this chapter has been tracing: the mind becomes mantra, effort accomplishes union, the mantra's secret is uncovered, and finally the practitioner's own knowledge blossoms naturally into total identification with Shiva, moving unimpeded through the field of universal consciousness, no longer separated from any object of perception, place, or experience.