SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

THE SAIVA RELIGION. 311
Atma does not know, whose Sarlra the Atma is, who rules
Atma within, He is thy Atma, the ruler within, immortal."
(III. vii. 22).
Here He is thy Atma
,
simply means He is the Soul s
Soul.
And the analogy of vowel and consonant explains this
relation fully. In Tamil Grammar, the words used to denote
vowels and consonants are the same as the words meaning
mind and body. And we find the following text to our surprije
in the Taittiriya Upamshat (II.
iv. i.)
Its consonants form its body; its vowel-, the soul (Atma).
The .vowels are those that can be sounded by themselves
but the consonants cannot be pronounced without the aid of the
vowel.* The consonants cannot be brought into being unless
the vowel supports
it ;
and in union, the two are inseparable ;
and One is the word used in the oldest Tamil Grammar to
denote the union of the two. A vowel short has one matrai, a
consonant (pure) half a matrai ;
and yet a vowel-consonant has
only one matrai, instead of one and a half. But the vowel is not
the consonant nor the consonant the vowel. God is not one
with the soul and the Universe, and yet without God, where is
the Universe?
"Thou art not aught in the universe, yet naught
is there
save Thou."
He is not one, nor different from the Universe, and
this relation is called Ananya, Advaita. The Sutrakara
brings out the nature of this relation which is neither
one nor different in II. i.
15 and 22. The Saiva Advaita
. Siddhanta accordingly postulates that God is neither Abheda
with the world, nor Brieda, nor Bhedabhe da, as these
terms are ordinarily under-stood, and yet He is one with
the v;orld, and different from the world, and Bhe~da-bheda.
\
Siva is situate vvith reference lo all,
at> the
to the letters,
letter A stands with reference