अथ कथमस्याज्ञानात्मकज्ञान-योनिवर्ग-कलाशरीररूपस्य त्रिविधस्य मलस्य बन्धकत्वमित्याह -ज्ञानाधिष्ठानं मातृका ॥ ४ ॥यदेतत् त्रिविधमलस्वरूपम् अपूर्णम्मन्यताभिन्नवेद्यप्रथा-शुभाशुभवासनात्मकं विविधं ज्ञानरूपमुक्तम् ।तस्य आदिक्षान्तरूपा अज्ञाता माता मातृका विश्वजननी तत्तत्संकुचितवेद्याभासात्मनो ज्ञानस्य अपूर्णोऽस्मि क्षामः स्थूलो वास्मि अग्निष्टोमयाज्यस्मि इत्यादितत्तदविकल्पकसविकल्पकावभासपरामर्शमयस्य तत्तद्वाचकशब्दानुवेधद्वारेण शोक-स्मय-हर्ष-रागादिरूपतामादधानाकरन्ध्रचितिमध्यस्था ब्रह्मपाशावलम्बिकाः ।पीठेश्वर्यो महाघोरा मोहयन्ति मुहुर्मुहुः ॥इति श्रीतिमिरोद्घाटप्रोक्तनीत्या वर्ग-कलाद्यधिष्ठातृब्राह्म्यादिशक्तिश्रेणीशोभिनी श्रीसर्ववीराद्यागमप्रसिद्धलिपिक्रमसंनिवेशोत्थापिका अम्बा-ज्येष्ठा-रौद्री-वामाख्यशक्तिचक्रचुम्बिता शक्तिरधिष्ठात्री तदधिष्ठानादेव हि अन्तरऽभेदानुसंधिवन्ध्यत्वात् क्षणमपि अलब्धविश्रान्तीनि बहिर्मुखान्येव ज्ञानानि इति युक्तैव एषां बन्धकत्वोक्तिः ।एतच्चशब्दराशिसमुत्थस्य … ।इति कारिकयास्वरूपावरणे चास्य शक्तयः सततोत्थिताः ।इति च कारिकया संगृहीतम् ॥ ४ ॥
In plain words
Mātṛkā is the ground of knowledge. How, then, does this threefold mala bind, in its form as knowledge that is ignorance, as the class of the source, and as that whose body is kalā? He says this. The threefold mala just described is knowledge in its various forms: the sense of being incomplete, the appearing of separate objects of knowledge, and the impressions of good and bad action. Its presiding power is mātṛkā, the unknown mother, the mother of the universe, whose form is the letters from a to kṣa. Knowledge is the appearing of this or that contracted object, made of the reflective grasp of such appearances, both without thought-construct and with it: "I am incomplete", "I am thin" or "I am fat", "I am one who has offered the agniṣṭoma". Through the words that name each of these, which run through it, she gives that knowledge the forms of grief, wonder, joy, passion and the rest. In keeping with what the Timirodghāṭa teaches: "Abiding in the midst of the consciousness in the opening of space, holding to the noose of Brahmā, the mistresses of the seats, very terrible, delude again and again." she shines with the line of powers, Brāhmī and the others, who preside over the classes of letters, the kalās and the rest; she brings forth the arrangement of the letters in the order well known in the Sarvavīra and the other āgamas; and the wheel of powers named Ambā, Jyeṣṭhā, Raudrī and Vāmā clings to her. Because of her presiding, knowledge, barren of the inner sense of non-difference, finds no rest even for a moment and is turned wholly outward. So it is right to say that these bind. This is gathered up in the verse: "Arising from the mass of words …" and in the verse: "And the powers are ever risen to veil his own nature."