Context

Sūtra 2 follows directly from the claim of sūtra 1 (consciousness is free, it is the cause of the universe) by specifying the mode of that causation. The question sūtra 1 raises is: how? Sūtra 2 answers: by its own will (svecchayā), on its own surface (svābhittau), it unfolds (unmīlayati) the universe. The three qualifications form a tight logical structure.

Primary reading

The universe does not arise from something outside consciousness — not from matter, not from a separate God, not from necessity. It arises from consciousness's own free impulse, displayed on consciousness's own being. Kṣemarāja is refuting both materialist and dualist cosmologies simultaneously. The universe is real — it is not illusion (māyā in the illusionist sense) — but its reality is the reality of consciousness's own display.

Commentarial layer

Kṣemarāja comments on svābhittau at length: consciousness is like a mirror (ādarśa) that contains images without being divided by them. The images are real appearances within an undivided reality. He is also implicitly refuting Sāṃkhya (which posits an unconscious material cause, prakṛti) and Vedānta of the Advaita type (which tends toward the illusoriness of the world). In Trika, the world is real precisely because it is citi's real display.

Common misreadings

Reading 'wall/surface' (abhitti) as implying that the universe is a mere projection or illusion — like a movie on a screen. The point is the opposite: the universe has the full reality of its ground, which is consciousness. Also: reading svecchayā as implying randomness or arbitrariness. The will is not arbitrary — it is the expression of fullness, not lack.