"Wherever the mind goes whether towards the exterior or towards the interior, everywhere there is the state of Siva. Since Siva is omnipresent, where can the mind go (to avoid Him)" - V.116, tr Jaideva Singh
This verse from the Vijñānabhairava Tantra expresses the all-pervading nature of consciousness; that no matter what appears within the mind as the contents of consciousness, it is consciousness itself which is the container, ground and substance of that awareness. Consciousness not only holds the various phenomena which enter our field of perception, it is their very source. In this non-dual tradition, perceiver, perception and perceived are non-different from one another; it is only the conceptual mind which attempts to divide the indivisible, so as to label, box and store all perception in a system of symbolic representations.
The non-dual tantrikas personified consciousness under various names, one of them - Bhairava, the name revered in this particular text. It is a name which evokes a sense of awesome, Absoluteness; literally implying a terror filled shriek (rava); His roar is the cry of self-awareness, so profound and intense that it shatters all conceptualization, till only the One, who is fullness, beatitude and perfection itself remains.
