SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

TATTVAS AND BEYOND. 39
Prakrit!) is greater than Atman and God, is greater than
Avyakta. Here Atman does not mean soul, but this special
Purusha-tattva. (What this comparative greatness and small*
ness mean we have explained in our article on An Another
Side in explaining the meaning of Omnipresence, Vibhutva).
All that constitutes, this Purusha-tattva, it will be noticed,
proceed from Asiiddha-Maya, and Asuddha-Maya itself is
constituted as the thirty-first tattva. Mulaprakriti issues
from the thirtieth, Kald. The next five, the highest tattvas,
constitute a different body, highly spiritual, for the highest
order of souls, called VijTi&nakalas, and they proceed from
The foremost in rank among these VijnSnakalas
Suddha-Maya.
become Lords, Ivaras of the Universe, and they are variously
called Mahesvaras, Sadasivas, Bindu and Nada. These
two latter are so nearest God and so potent in their powers that
they are almost called Siva and Sakti. And yet all these seven
Isvaras, three of which are Sagtmas (Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra)
and four Nirguna (Mahesvara-Brahm, SadaSiva-Brahm, Bindu-
Brahm and Nada-Brahm) are all souls united to Auddha- anfl
Suddha-Maya bodies; and in the Vedasand Upanishats, all these
Saguna and Nirguna Gods, are spoken of as the Highest God,
and special Upanishats are devoted to the praise of one or
other of these Gods. And great confusion arises from the fact
that from Rudra (one of the Trinity) upwards, all the different
ISvaras are called by all the names of the most High, Rudra,
etc. The
Sankara,
Siva^,
Sambhu, Bhava, Sarva, Pasupati
reason for this identity in form and name appears to be that
these Ivaras are in a sense immortal, and are not subject to
human re-births as Sa-kalas> and that there are no possibilities
of reversions among them, and they make a much greater
approach to the Majesty of the most High, than other lower
Beings. The four Avasthas Jagra, Svapna, Sushupti and
Turiya are all the conditions attaching to the human
soul (Sa-kala), and not to the Pralayakala and Vijnftnakala.
Thesfc latter classes of souls are not themselves subject to these
Avasthas, which mark the varying and diminishing conditions