SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

"
"
"
"
"
XII
INTRODUCTION
carries on His five-fold operations with a
body of pure sentient
Energy
the outcome of His own free-will solely to disentangle
it from those ruinous fascinations. The universe that we see
around us, has Nature for its material cause, the Spirit for its
efficient cause and His
body of pure sentient Energy
for
its
instrumental cause. Nature is specially superintended by the
Spirit, in order that she, albeit insentient, may the more rigorously
and consistently exhibit the law of desert and causality, in
relation to the Soul. The law of causation is really
the inherent
and eternal property of Nature. As long
as the Soul chooses
to enjoy the company of Nature,
so long will Her law of causality
and desert hold the Soul tight within its meshes. But Her con
nexion with the Soul is, after all, but temporary, though She is,
by Herself, eternal. It is also possessed of an ingrained perversity
that is inherited from Nature, and hence eventually eradicable,
whereby it mistakes its sensuous or sensual wallowing
in the
11
lap of Nature
for its
appointed Goal, and thus converts its
Spirit-given instruments of Emancipation, formed out of Nature,
into effective engines of its own perdition.
The award of Spiritual
Freedom is
always made by the Spirit to the Soul by an act
of Grace, and when the moment for that award (which involves
a complete Emancipation
from its bondage
to Nature) has arrived,
the Spirit reveals Himself to the Soul in any manner He pleases,
and blesses it with His Eternal Fellowship of ineffable power and
joy. The above, in short, is the plainest summary
of the central
truths of the Agamanta, when shorn of all learned technicalities,
and it will not be difficult to see how simple the whole teaching rur.s.
We shall now look at some of the Agamic teachings a little
more closely. The three categories, Nature, Soul and Spirit, are,
as we have already seen, eternal, that is to say, are without either
stari or finish ;
but the Soul and Nature are under the control of