Meditation within Pratyabhijñā is understood as a means of uncovering, rather than producing, one’s identity as Śiva. The tradition insists that liberation is a matter of direct recognition of an ever-present reality, not the gradual construction of a new state. Meditation therefore functions as a clarifying and preparatory discipline: it stills the fluctuations of mind, refines attention, and removes the obscurations that prevent this recognition from shining forth. In this way, it does not manufacture Śiva-consciousness but allows what is already there to become evident.

A central role of meditation is the refinement of the sense of “I.” Ordinarily, the “I” is contracted into a limited ego, identified with body, mind, and circumstance. Through sustained contemplative awareness—often focused on the bare sense of “I am”—this contracted identity is seen as a partial expression of a deeper, all-encompassing Subject. Meditation thus supports the dissolution of the duality between subject and object, revealing that every experience is grounded in a single, undivided consciousness. The limited self is recognized as a reflection or appearance of the absolute “I,” which Pratyabhijñā identifies with Śiva.

Over time, the practice shifts from object-centered techniques to a more radical, subject-centered inquiry. Early stages may employ forms, mantras, or visualizations, but the higher function of meditation is to turn awareness back upon itself, asking not what is perceived but who the perceiver is. This “awareness of awareness” opens the way to immediate, non-conceptual recognition, where the individual self is seen to be identical with universal consciousness. Such recognition is described as sudden rather than piecemeal, yet meditation prepares the ground by stabilizing attention and deepening self-awareness.

Finally, meditation in this tradition is not confined to formal sitting. Its aim is the cultivation of a dynamic, continuous awareness that pervades all states and activities. The practitioner learns to recognize the same luminous consciousness in waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, and to maintain awareness of Śiva’s presence in ordinary perceptions, emotions, and actions. In this integrated form, meditation becomes a way of living in which recognition of one’s Śiva-nature gradually becomes spontaneous and effortless, even though the decisive insight itself is always a direct and immediate recognition.