SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

"
The
"
Admitted
"
"
232 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD.
regarding water, air, fire, &c. * * it ends with He who dwells
in Vijnana (soul) and within or different from Vijnana, whom
Vijnana does not know, whose body Vijnana is, who rules
Vijnana within, He is thy Atma, the Ruler within, Immortal.
That God is different from all nature and man is further
brought out by the famous * Nti, Neti verse of this same
Upanishat (3-9-26), which Paranjoti Munivar translates and
expands in the following lines:
God Sundara who is described as not this not this ".
*
Sages declare, He is not the five elements, not the senses, nor
sensations, nor the Andakarartas, nor the soul ;
He is the deceitful nothing *
which the Vedas fail to discover".
The Supreme
is adored as the Creator, Hara ;
as Protector,
Sankara ;
as Destroyer, or Reproducer, Rudra and as Bliss-
;
Siva. God is called & em (gem $& near s as "
possessing
giver,
The word Ve\i in Tamil means a void space aud corresponds to
the Telugu word Bayilu which sage Vemana is very fond of using.
* St. TiruvaJJuvar
:
Like the senses not enjoying the proper sensations
Is useless the head, not bowing to the Lord with eight attributes,
The Commentator Parimelalagar says, these eight are defined in
the Saivagamas. They are frequently mentioned in the Puranas also.
Srikantha Sivacharya comments on them as follows in his Bhashya on
I. i. 2.
quoting the Vedic sources of these attributes.
that birth etc., as attributes inhering in the universe, do
not pertain to Brahman ; still, they rightly constitute the defining marks
of Brahman as one closely connected with the universe. The Entity
called Siva, possessed of the attribute of omniscience and so on and