SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

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ADVA1TA ACCORDING TO THE SA1VA SIDDHAiSTA. 249
and yet not to be self-contradictory, and to appear as owe
harmonious whole. And it is this peculiar relation which
cannot be easily defined or described, that is denoted by the
word Advaita.
And Saint Meykandan accordingly
discusses this word in
his first argument.
"Ihe word Advaita cannot mean one-ness
or Ekam
;
no one can think of himself as one, and the very
thought implies two things. The word simply denies the
separateness of the two, Anyandsti, and hence God is said to be
one with the souls," that is to say, Advaita is
Ananya or nondifferent.
The relation is such, that though there be difference
in substance, no separation is possible, and the word is used to
emphasize* its non-different character. And he instances the
case of a man and his body. Though these are different, yet
man identifies himself with the body, owing to the inseparable
connexion between the two, and so practically they are one or
non-different. So too, the soul identifies itself with God,
though God is not the soul, and the soul is not God ;
and hence
God is one, and not one with the soul. And in the second
stanza, he develops this argument, and analyses the text
and illustrates it,
Ekamevadvitiyam
*
In the Vedic text, Ekam means that there is
only one
and that one is the Pati (Lord). You who say There is one
is the Pasu, bound up mPaSa. The word Advaita means
that beside God nothing else will exist, as when vve say that
there will be no other letters (consonants) when the vowel A
is not." And the meaning will be clear when the illustration is
understood. The illustration is that of vowel and con
fully
sonants i.e., s-aSff and or Qu>iL a.i_eu, meaning soul and body.
"The vowel becoming one with the consonants is natural
union,"
is the Nannul sutra.
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