SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

THE TATTVAS AND BEYOND. 37
and more intelligent forms than these 24 tattvas ;
and as
people, lower down, have mistaken the gross forms as Manas,
and Buddhi itself as soul and God, these higher forms of matter
have also been mistaken for soul and God ;
and the mistake is
made more natural, as the souls whose vestures are formed out
of these rarer forms of matter, are more and more advanced
spiritually and intellectually. It will be seen that what is called
CJmna (meaning merely quality) is the special essence of
Malaprakriti or matter at this stage, and this Guna which
divides itself as Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, does not pertain to
any higher forms of matter than Mulaprakriti. And this
Mulaprakriti forms the special vesture of the lowest classes
of souls called Sa-kala. And these souls range from the greatest
Gods to the minutest living germ ;
each is clothed with the
Gunas, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. The highest of these classes
of souls are clothed with very great powers, and they become
the lords of this universe in different manvantras. And these
three beings are Rudra, Vishnu, and Brahma. And having
regard to the greatness of these jivas from our own low
position, we need not wonder why people have often mistaken
these jivas to be the Supreme God Himself. And a more
grosser mistake was never made than when it is (foolishly)
asserted that this Saguna-Rudra-y/z/a is the Pati postulated
by the Saiva-Siddhantins. And some of these latter class of
people crow over the former, and say that the worship of this
lower Brahm (Saguna-Rudra or Ibvara) is all well for a time,
but that is no good and cannot secure any Moksha Sadhana and
that the belief in the Nirguna Brahm is alone capable of freeing
one from one s bonds. But that is making very great stock out
of the difference between Saguna and Nirguna beings. That this
is not in fact any very important factor, will be made manifest
from the fact that instead of one Nirguna Being, as believed in
by the Hindu Idealists, there are a host of such Beings, who
possess no vestures formed of the three gunas. The higher
orders of Pralaydkalas and Vijnanakalas are all Nirguna Beings,
and they can never be born again as mortals or human beings.