SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

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This
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238 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD.
Praise be to Him who is
female and male and neuter."
Further, the words Saguna and Nirguna are
usually tran
slated as personal, and impersonal, and we have often pointed
out how vaguely and loosely these words are used, and pro
tested against this translation. We will first consider the words
Saguna and "
Nirguna.
It literally means with guna,"
and
without guna."
One school of people would interpret
it as
meaning with good and "
qualities,"
without bad qualifies,"
and that this is absurd is seen from the fact that the two words
are made to mean the same thing. The woid "Guna," how
ever does not mean any good or bad quality, but is a technical
word as used by the Saiikhya and Vdanta schools and as
occurring in the Upanishats, Gita, etc. It means the three
gunas, Satva, Rajas, Tamas, the qualities of Prakriti or
Pradhana or matter ;
and as such the words would mean
"with material qualities"
or "without material qualities".
St. Tirumular uses the phrase Qps^GsortipQew^, mukkunanirgunam,"
so that no mistake may be made of the word
Nirgunam itself.
Satva is condition of wakefulness (Jagrata)
; Rajas
is dreamcondition
(Svapna) ; Tamas is
Sushupti ; the stainless
Turiyam is
Nirguna."
So also the Gita speaks of
Thraigunyo Nirgunaha,"
and
it stands to reason that God cannot be "Saguna,"
clothed in
matter or material qualities, and must be therefore, non-materi
al, Nirguna. The Supreme God is, therefore, described in the
Upanishats and Gita and Sivajfianabodham as Nirguna and
not as Saguna, as in the following passages :
c
one God is hid in every bhuta pervading all, the
inner &tm& of every atmd, Inspector of all deeds (spectator) in