Samashti-pinda

Samashti-pinda

समष्टि पिण्ड, samaṣṭi piṇḍa

Shiva’s cosmic body, or the body of the manifested Universe.

Samashti-pinda is a term used by Gorakshanath in "Siddha-siddhanta paddhati", which refers to the universal Shiva’s body (also called brahmanda, hiranyagarbha). Inside samashti-pinda there are various worlds that are permeated with each other, each of which possesses its own subtlety.

The nature of Absolute Reality is a multiple cosmic system with different kinds of living beings enclosed in it, which develops from the dynamic spiritual nature of a single Supreme Reality and which passes through successive stages of its development.

Gorakshanath in "Siddha-siddhanta paddhati" shows how the Supreme Spirit, essentially beyond time, space, and relativity, eternally indistinguishable and unchangeable in its transcendental nature, manifests itself in time and space due to its incomparable power as a multiple Universe (samashti-pinda) with countless kinds of individual bodies (vyashti-pinda) and as a soul residing in each of them. This is one of the main metaphysical representations of Nath Sampradaya.