प्रकृतशास्त्रानुसारेणेष्टदेवतानमस्कारं करोति शास्त्रकारःअस्मद्रूपसमाविष्टः स्वात्मनात्मनिवारणे ।शिवः करोतु निजया नमः शक्त्या ततात्मने ॥ १ ॥योऽहं नमस्करोमि स शिवोऽस्मद्रूपेणैक्यं प्राप्तः ।वस्तुस्थित्या हि सर्वतत्त्वविग्रहो वक्ष्यमाणनीत्या शिवः ।स संसारार्थं मायाशक्तिकृतैक्याख्यात्या भावाननात्मस्थानाभासयति ईश्वरप्रत्यभिज्ञा प्रपञ्चितन्यायेन ।ततस्तान् प्राणादीन् पुनः कांश्चिल्लोकयात्रासु अस्मद्रूपप्रमातृभेदेन स्थापयिष्यन् भिन्नीकृतान्प्रमेयानपि घटपटादिवैलक्षण्येनात्माभेदेन पश्यन् समाविशति इत्युच्यते ।यावत्या च मात्रया समावेशस्तावन्मात्रसिद्धिसंभवः ।प्रथमस्तावत् कर्तृतानुसारी ज्ञानक्रियायोगः ।यथोक्तं स्पन्दशास्त्रेनहीच्छानोदनस्यायं प्रेरकत्वेन वर्तते ।अपि त्वात्मबलस्पर्शात्पुरुषस्तत्समो भवेत् ॥इति ।तथान्यत्रोक्तम् ऐश्वरी प्रवृत्तिः इति ।अनयैव दृष्ट्या तत्तदृद्ध्यर्थमधिकतरः समावेशोऽभ्यसनीयः स्वप्रयत्नेनापीत्येतदपि सूचितम् ।समाविष्टश्च शिवोऽपीत्युच्यते देवदत्तादिरपि च उभयोरैक्यगमनाविशेषात् ।स तथाविधः शिवस्ततात्मने परापररूपभगवत्सदाशिवादिप्रसरणमुखेनानन्तविस्ताराय निजस्वरूपाय परमशिवसंज्ञाय नमस्करोतु ।लोट् निमन्त्रणादौ नमस्तेऽस्तु इतिवत् ।वयं शिवात्मानः परमेश्वराय नमस्करवामेत्यर्थः ।परत्वेन प्रथमपुरुषप्रयोगोऽकिंचिद्रूपत्वेन कृत्रिमाहंभावस्य कर्तृतामात्रं तत्त्वमिति दर्शनार्थः ।सर्वं च शिवमयमिति नमस्कारे वाङ्मनसादि करणमपि शिव एव ।तदाह स्वात्मना इति ।विघ्ना अपि तदात्मान एव निवार्याः तदाह आत्मनिवारणे इति ।नमस्कारे चास्मदीयेच्छादिशक्तिः शैव्येवेत्याह निजया शक्त्या इति ।एतेन सर्वा एव क्रियाः सकारकाः सफलाश्च गमनभोजनादिका एवमेवानुगन्तव्या इति दर्शितम् ॥ १ ॥
In plain words
Following the treatise at hand, the author of the treatise pays homage to the deity he holds dear: May Śiva, who has entered into our form, pay homage by his own self, for the warding off of himself, with his own Śakti, to his self spread out. I who pay homage am Śiva, who has become one with our form. For as things truly stand, Śiva, by the reasoning that will be set out, has all the tattvas for his body. For the sake of saṃsāra he makes things appear as not abiding in himself, through the non-recognition of oneness that the power of māyā brings about, by the reasoning set out at length in the Īśvarapratyabhijñā. Then, as he is about to set up some of them again, the breath and the rest, as distinct knowers in our form in the course of worldly life, and as he sees them, even as known things he has made separate, to be one with himself, set apart from pots, cloth and the like, he is said to enter into them. And to the degree that there is samāveśa, to that degree accomplishment becomes possible. First of all comes the joining with knowledge and action that follows upon being the agent. As is said in the Spandaśāstra: “For it is not as the driver of the goad of will that this person acts. Rather, by touching the power of the self, a person becomes equal to that.” So it is said; and likewise it is said elsewhere, “activity that belongs to the Lord”. By this very view this too is indicated: that for this or that attainment a fuller samāveśa is to be practised, by one's own effort as well. And Śiva too is called ‘the one who has entered’, and so is Devadatta or anyone else, since the two arrive at oneness without any difference. May that Śiva, being such, pay homage ‘to his self spread out’: to his own form, called Paramaśiva, whose expanse is endless as it spreads forth as the Blessed Sadāśiva and the rest, supreme and lower in form. The imperative is used in the sense of an invitation and the like, as in ‘homage be to you’. The meaning is: let us, whose self is Śiva, pay homage to the Supreme Lord. The third person is used, as of another, to show that the contrived sense of I, since it is nothing at all, has agency alone for its reality. And since everything is made of Śiva, in the homage the instrument too, speech, mind and the rest, is Śiva himself: so he says ‘by his own self’. The obstacles too, which are to be warded off, are he himself: so he says ‘for the warding off of himself’. And in the homage our power of will and the rest is Śiva's own: so he says ‘with his own Śakti’. By this it is shown that all actions, going, eating and the rest, with their factors and their fruits, are to be understood in just this way.