SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

>is
governed
INTRODUCTION
Xlll
the Spirit, and have nothing like absolute independence of action
which the Spirit alone enjoys to the full. The Spirit is an embodi
ment of love and compassion, or, as it is sometimes expressed,
is no
thing but Life, Light and Love. The Souls are infinite in number,
but a broad marshalling brings them under three classes, with
reference to the varying grades of their bondage to Nature. Nature
by ceaseless cycles of periodic manifestation and dis
solution, cycles which turn out, however, to be of many
sorts and
conditions, when regard
is had not only to the extent of, or the
interval between, the periods, but also to the specific charac
ter, phase or grade
of the manifestations and dissolutions.
Manifestation is
simply a process of becoming patent, while
Dissolution, that of becoming latent.
Nature ever endures, librating
between a condition of grossness and ponderability on the
one hand, and subtlety and imperceptibility on the other. She
is
per se inert, and every cycle of Her activity is only rendered
possible, by the peculiar impact she receives from the Spirit and
His immanence in Her. The essential active attribute of the
insentient Nature, is Her rigid adherence to the law of causation
and desert, both physically and morally, and if the statement be
made that She is the Spirit-appointed material instrument of the
Soul s Salvation, all we are to understand therefrom is, the Spirit
requires the Soul to seek its Emancipation only by wedding Nature,
and thereby passing the ordeal of causality. But the elaborate
processes which Nature daily employs to bring in more and more
Souls as Her suitors, in order that they may be schooled under the
law of causation, are indeed very inscrutable, although exceedingly
seductive. She first seduces the Soul into Her company by Her
irresistible fascinations, and finally tires it
by Her inexorable law of
causality, which at the same time reveals Her inward gruesomeness
to the deceived Soul. The Soul then rates Her at Her proper