Chapter 26 of 51 · Uma Samhita · Overall chapter 340 of 464
Deceiving Kala
Parvati asks how a yogi can actually evade death once its signs appear, and Shiva lays out detailed nada-yoga (sacred sound) and pranayama techniques - practiced in darkness, through specific postures and breath control - built around nine progressively subtler categories of mystical inner sound, each granting its own distinct siddhi.
Devi said
Divinity, you have told me the true knowledge of time. Please tell me of the deception of Kala, a truth known to yogis. All living beings are dragged by Kala, but when Kala comes how does one deceive death? Divinity, giver of happiness to all, showing your affection to me, please tell me, for yogis' welfare.
Shankara replied
Shivaa, listen. I will tell you what you ask, briefly, for the welfare of all humans. The body is an aggregate of the five elements: earth, water, fire, wind and space. Space pervades everything and goes everywhere. Everything dissolves into space and arises from it again; had it not existed, where would they have found a refuge? Beautiful one, because it is stable the aggregate also exists. By the strength of austerities and mantras those with knowledge know all this very well, without doubt.
Devi said
Lord of the heaven-dwellers, Kala is cruel and terrible in form. When he took them to space he was burned by you. Praised and satisfied by hymns he got his form back. You told him he would roam among people, invisible in form. You showed him your great power, and by your boon he arose again. Kala is present here. Can he be destroyed by anyone? Please tell me. You are the lord, noblest of yogis, self-controlled, Mahesha, engaged in others' welfare.
Shankara replied
Kala cannot be destroyed by supreme gods, daityas, yakshas, rakshasas, uragas or humans. But embodied yogis supremely absorbed in meditation can cheerfully destroy Kala.
Sanatkumara continued
Hearing this from the guru of the three worlds, Gouri laughed and asked him to tell her truly how Kala could be destroyed, and by whom.
Shambhu told her
Moon-faced one, Kala is like a predator, but there are faultless yogis who can fling him away. Listen carefully. The body always consists of the five elements, emerges from them and dissolves into them, having their qualities. Wind arises from space, fire from wind, water from fire and earth from water. Earth and the other elements merge in turn into the one before. Earth is said to have five attributes, water four, fire three, wind two and space one. Sound is the sole attribute of space. The attributes of earth and the other elements are said to be sound, touch, form, taste and smell as the fifth. When each element gives up its attribute it is destroyed, and when it takes its attribute it is said to manifest. Goddess, know this is the truth about the five elements. So yogis who wish to vanquish Kala always think of these attributes and Kala's.
Devi asked
Lord of all who know yoga, how do yogis conquer Kala? Do they use meditation or mantra? Please tell me everything.
Shankara replied
Devi, listen. Wishing yogis' welfare I will tell you. This supreme knowledge must not be revealed indiscriminately. Beautiful one, it must be given to one full of faith and devotion, intelligent and pure, always devoted to dharma and not a non-believer. On an excellent seat or couch, one who knows yoga must practise yoga, in the dark without a lamp, when others sleep. When the index fingers close the ears for a muhurta a sound is heard like a blazing fire. If one does this at sandhya one feels no exhaustion even for an instant. All ailments and many kinds of anxiety and hardship are swiftly destroyed. If one constantly visualises death's form for two ghatikas one can conquer death and desire and roam as one wills, knowing and seeing everything and gaining every siddhi. If he hears a sound like clouds thundering in the rains, the yogi is at once freed from all bonds of samsara and becomes constantly subtler than the subtlest. Goddess, I have thus described the nature and form of meditating on shabda-brahma. As one looking for grain throws away the husk, the yogi throws away all bonds. After gaining shabda-brahma, if he hankers after anything else it is like striking the sky with fists, and he ends up craving hunger and thirst. The supreme brahman gives bliss and liberation, without decay and not external. When one knows it one is free of every limitation. The deluded come under Kala's noose and are bound by death's noose; they are sinners and evil in mind and do not know shabda-brahma. One is in samsara only as long as one has not gained that refuge. When one knows the supreme truth one is freed from the bondage of birth. Sleep and laziness are great obstacles, and one must make efforts to conquer these enemies. One must always sit on a comfortable seat and practise shabda-brahma. Even a man of a hundred, if he practises the increase of prana as long as he has life, will be free of ailments and gain a body that conquers death. If this can be seen directly in an old man, what need to speak of a young person? Beloved Devi, shabda-brahma is supreme Shiva, and with one's intelligence one must try to meditate on it. It cannot be pronounced but is the endless sound; it is not Aum, nor mantra, nor seed-mantra, nor syllable. Those who know prana say this sound has nine signs. Using this nada progressively one can move toward siddhi: first the sound of a voiced consonant, second of bell-metal, third of a horn, fourth of a bell, fifth of a veena, sixth of a flute, seventh of a drum, eighth of a conch and ninth the rumbling of thunder. Eventually, giving up these nine sounds, one must practise tumkara. If a yogi always meditates on this, good and bad deeds do not touch him. Goddess, through such yoga a person can hear what others cannot. If he dies while engaged in it a yogi can remain in that position for days and nights, and within seven days a sound comes from him, a sign that he has conquered death. This sound is of nine types, which I will describe accurately. The first nada, ghosha, is supreme and purifies the self, is excellent, destroys every ailment, attracts and controls. The second, the sound of bell-metal, stupefies all beings and without doubt counters the effects of poison, evil planets and every obstacle. The third, the sound of a horn, is invoked for black magic, for driving out and killing enemies. Parameshvara says the fourth is the sound of a bell, which can draw all the gods, to say nothing of humans on earth; drawn by it yaksha and gandharva maidens grant the yogi every great siddhi he wishes. The fifth nada, always heard by a yogi, is the sound of a veena, through which one can see far away. If one meditates on the sound of a flute one knows the truth about everything. If one meditates on the sound of a drum one does not suffer age or death. Through the sound of a conch one can take any form one desires. By the sound of thunder a person suffers no calamities. Fair one, with single-minded attention, if the mind is constantly fixed on tumkara, a form of brahman, what can he not achieve as he wishes? He becomes omniscient, sees everything, can take any form and go anywhere, suffers no faults, and is without doubt like Shiva himself. Parameshani, this is the real nature of shabda-brahman with its nine forms, all described to you. What else do you want to hear?
Retold in our own words from Bibek Debroy's English translation of the Shiva Purana (Penguin Classics). Names, numbers and the order of events follow the source.