SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

48 ADVA1TA ACCORDING TO THE SAIVA SIDDHANTA.
attempt is made to den}^ the reality of the world and sin and
ourself and God, but one is asked to discriminate one thing
from the other. In the other view, there is no world, no sin, no
soul, and all these fantasies arise. But there is no reply to the
question How ?
However, let it be premised that the Siddhanta writers
take the negative prefix to mean not Abhava @JTU) but
Sadrisyo gu&rG&u) ;
and we will proceed to show how they
develope their system.
Count Tolstoy defines religion as "a certain relation esta
blished by man between his separate personality
and the
endless universe or its source ;
and morality as the perpetual
guiding of life which flows from this And relation." Siddharjta
writers attempt to trace alike this relation between God and
man and the world, and thereby discover the means or Sadana
for our guidance whereby we can get rid of all pain and sin,
And the first postulate
is contained in two words in the second
Sdtra of Sivajnanabodham.
"God
is one with them, and different
4
And Saint Arunarjdi Sivacharya adds another relation,
one-^nd-different. Here then is involved Abheda, * Bhda,
and * Bhdabh6da relations. But other schools postulate one or
other of these relations, and the similes used are gold and orna
darkness and light to
ment to denote the Abheda relation,
*
denote Bh6da relation, and word and meaning to denote the
Bhedabhda relation. And there can be no reconciliation bet
ween these views, and no meeting place between them. The
Siddha^ta postulates all these different relations, but by other
similes, such as body and soul to denote Abheda, eye and the
sun to denote Bheda, soul and the eye to denote Bhdabhda, as
set forth above in the stanza quoted from Saint Umapati-
Sivacharya, and yet so as not to be contradictory. There nust
therefore be something peculiar
in this view which makes it
possible to admit of all these different relationships or aspects,