SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

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296 THE SAIVA RELIGION.
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offer of his self as sacrifice ; and self-sacrifice thus becomes the
centre of Hindu and Saivaite Philosophy, on which the whole
process of salvation depends. This is the Arpana or Sivarpana
referred to in Verse 57, Chap. 18 of Gita.
The philosophy also retains the old language
technical terms. Whereas the newer systems have such techni
for its
cal terms as Chit, Achit, Isvara, Jagat, Jiva, and Para; the
Saiva-Siddhanta technical terms to denote these Padarthas or
categories are Pati (God), Pau (soul), and Pasa (bondage).^
^j In the hymn to the unknown God in the tenth Mandala of the Rig
Veda, God is termed the Pati which means Protector or Saviour coming
from the root Pa, to protect. It strictly corresponds to the English term
Providence. Even the term Isa or Isvara which simply means Ruler,
does not biing out the Inner Narure of the Lord which is Love. Vide
also the Brahma Sutra text *Trmf^T^3T" because of the term Pati and
others :
Pasu, as Srlkantha Yogi explains, involves bondage in Pasa
and Pasa in its root meaning simply means
that which binds ". It means a noose or a cord only in its extended
meaning of imagery. A man bound to a pole by means of cords, his
hands and feet, neck and back being tied to it, can have no liberty
and he is said to undergo pain. Pasa therefore does not simply mean
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limitation but is limitation which involves pain or pain to the core.
The Agamas explain the noose or a cord held in one of the ten hands
of Sadasiva s form as TT^WTT^Wfi and J?^JW ^7T?T^
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In Saivaism the soul is
symbolised as a cattle tied by means of a
rope to a pole. Ihis supposes the existence of a master to it. The \fcyu-
Samhita has .
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Beings from Brahma to immovable things are termed Pas us. The^ are
the characteristics of all PaSus (i.e.,) that it is bound or tied by means of
ropes that it chews the cud of Sukha and Duhkha (pleasure and pain)
arising out of its own acts, that it forms an instrument (or the Lords to