SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

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328 THE NATURE OF THE J1VA.
If you ask, what then is the meaning of the word Advaitam*
? 1 will show how Saiva Siddhantins explain
it. On hearing
the great texts called Mahavakya Tatvamasi etc., which are
used in the three persons, we see that these sentences speak of
1
that as one substance and thou as another and enquire how
one can become the other. The answer is given to remove the
doubt by stating how one can become the other and what relation
subsists between the two and the word advaitam is used to explain
the relation." St. "are
Umapati Sivacharya queries, there not
objects in this world which become dark in darkness and
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light in light?" (Tiruvarutpayan 11. 3.)
And the answer
usually returned is, these are the eye, the mirror, the crystal
and the Akasam. The eye loses its power of seeing in darkness
and recovers it in light. The others become dark or light
as darkness or light surrounds it.
They are not lost in either
case, but their individuality is lost and merged in one thing or
the other. To these we may add also water, clear as crystal.
But the classic simile 1 have stated in the beginning is the crystal
or the mirror. This is brought out in Sankhya sutra fvi. 28) and
yoga sutra (i. 4).* Now let us inquire into the nature of the crys
tal or the mirror or the glass. There is before you, a picture of
our late Sovereign Lord and King-Emperor (Blessed be his name)
* I bring together here all the texts bearing on the subject.
Now a man is like this or that according as he behaves and so will
he be. A man of good acts will become good, a man of bad habits bad.
He becomes pure by pure deeds, and bad by bad deeds.
is his desire, so is his will ;
and as is his will, so is his deed.
Whatever deeds he does, that will he reap.
whatever object man s own mind is attached, to that he goes
strenuously with his deed.
e
who desires the Atman, being Brahman, he goes to Brahman.
That atman is indeed Brahman (Bvihad. Up.
iv. 5, 6).
a metal disk (mirror) tarnished by dust shines bright again after
it has been cleansed, so is the one incarnate person satisfied atid freed
from grief, after he has seen the real nature of himself.
"And when by the real nature of himself, he sees, as by a lamp, the real
nature of the
Brahman, then having known the unborn eternal God, who
transcends all tattvas, he is freed from all pasa" (Sveta. Up. 11. 14, 15).