SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

" This
"
THE SAIVA RELIGION. 305
cannot speak of the sun being hid by the
clouds, unless there
is a seer. The cloud has no capacity to hide the sun but it haspower
to hide the seer s eye. This sun is Siva. The cloud or
cataract in one s eye is the Anava Mala; the seer or his eye is the
Jiva or Atma or soul. When the soul is enshrouded by Anava
Mala and is without action will and intelligence, it is its night
the Kevala State.* When God, out of His great love, sets
him in evolution giving it
the body and the worlds out of Maya
for his enjoyment and experience, whereby his kriya akti etc.,
are. aroused, this is called its sakala condition. Anava Mala is
night and darkness, and Maya acts as the lamp-light the
power of million arcs is the Suddha Maya in darkness. But
when the sun rises, all darkness and night vanish and there
is no need of any lamp, however powerful, and the soul is fully
enveloped in that Supreme Splendour, that "Light of Truth,
that, entering body and soul, has melted all faults and driven
away
the false darkness." This is the soul s Suddha or
Nirvana condition.
day in Thy mercy unto me Thou didst drive away the
darkness, and stand as the Rising Sun :
Of this, Thy way of rising there being naught else but Thou
I
thought without thought.
I drew nearer and nearer to Thee, wearing away atom by atom, till
I was one with Thee.
O Siva, dweller in the great Holy Shrine,
/
Though art not aught in the Universe, naught
is there save Thou.
Who can know Thee ? 11
The above expresses the kernel of Saiva Advaita Siddhanta.
This leads us naturally to the discussion of the nature of
Advaita postulated by the Saiva School, and before we do so,
* From start to finish, life consists of series of awakenings
final goal is reached. Accordingly existence itself is five-fold.
till the
Abuddha, Buddha, Budhyamana, Prabuddha and Suprabuddha.
11 From St. Manikkavacagar s Tiruvachakam.
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