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Literal meaning: Vijnānabhairav consists of two words, vijnāna and bhairava. We have first of all to understand the esoteric significance of Bhairava. Ksemarāja in his Udyota commentary gives a description of the esoteric meaning of Bhairava. The sum and substance of it is that Bhairava is an acrostic word consisting of the letters, bha, ra, and va; bha indicates bharaña or maintenance of the universe; ra indicates ravaña or withdrawal of the universe; va indicates vamana or projection i.e., manifestation of the universe. Thus Bhairava indicates all the three aspects of the Divine. From the mystic point of view Bhairava is the ultimately reality in which there is no distinction of Shiva & Shakti. The svarupa or essential nature of Bhairava is vijnāna or bodha or mahābodha, cit or caitanya the main characteristic of which is svatantrya or absolute freedom revealing itself in icchā, jnāna & kriyā. It is to this vijnānabhairav that the seeker of spiritual life has to be integrated.

The entire manifestation consisting of subject and object is a mere reflection in this vijnāna. Just as a city in a mirror appears as something different from the mirror, though it is nothing different from the mirror, even so the universe though appearing different from vijnāna is nothing different from it. In verses 2 to 6 of vijnānabhairav, the Devi mentions certain well known statements about Bhairava and wants to know His highest state or essential nature. Bhairava categorically rejects the various well known opinions about his highest state and pithily but with luminous clarity states in verses 14 and 15 what His essential nature consists in