The Kashmirian tAntrika gonanda was in the lineage of a now largely lost lineage of upAsana of chaNDikA. His mantra-verse outlines the heart of this system:
shUlAhata-mahiShAsura-rudhirach-ChuritaadharAmbarA gaurI |
puShpavatIva sa-lajjA hasita-hara-nirIkShitA jayati ||
The sAdhana is only for the vIra – a brave man of strong body like a great bowman or swordsman. The bold votary becomes the fierce rudra and his dUtI bhavAnI. He who completes it dwells in the middle of the waves of spanda – the crest on one side and the trough on the other. He himself is motionless in the middle of the heart, where chaNDikA, who is the rAja-haMsI moves restlessly generating the sense of multiplicity. He sings like the AchArya bhagIratha had done:
bhava-jaladhi-jalAvalamba-yaShTir mahiSha-mahAsura-shaila-vajra-dhArA |
hara-hR^idaya-taDAga-rAja-haMsI dishatu shivaM jagatash chiram ||
A pillar of support in the waters of the ocean of existence; a shower of thunderbolts on the great mountainous asura mahiSha; a royal swan roving in the lake of hara’s heart show weal to the world for ever.
mAnasa-taraMgiNI 