A special and very important characteristic of Trika yoga, which is not found in other systems, is its doctrine of “possession” (samavesa). In samavesa practitioners are suddenly infused and possessed with Shivahood, and feel themselves to be omniscient and omnipotent. This is not the kind of possession or haunting that occurs when the power that haunts and the person who is haunted are different. Rather, yogins in samavesa enter a state of unity, and their limited individual personalities get expanded into universal I-consciousness which they feel to be divinely potent in all respects. Samavesa has been defined as the immersion of the dependence of a dependent consciousness into the independence of the Independent Consciousness (Tantraloka, I.73). It is actually the sudden and direct intuitional realization of one’s Divine Essence, called Isvarapratyabhijna.Sufficient practice in samavesa results in a state of jivanmukti (liberation in this very life) in which a yogin develops supernatural divine powers (siddhis). A jivanmukta can use these divine powers simply by willing them to be (Isvarapratyabhijnavimarsini, IV.i.15), though such a refined individual would most probably avoid meddling with the natural order, or in matters of divine administration, which are the province of a long hierarchy of male and female deities at different levels of authority. This kind of yogic attainment is not considered to be an obstacle on the path of final liberation. Rather, it is said to be helpful, as it removes any lingering doubt about the divine nature of the Self, and develops a firm faith in the eventual attainment of absolute unity with Paramasiva when the individual dies (Tantraloka, XII, 183–85). Further, these abilities help create faith and confidence in the mind of worthy disciples who feel that the preceptor, being liberated, can liberate others as well.— B. N. Pandit, Specific Principles of Kashmir Shaivism (3rd ed., 2008), p. 96–97.
