SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

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qualities
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44 THE NATURE OF THE DIVINE PERSONALITY.
In our last we quoted a Svetasvatara Mantra in which
the One God is called Nirguna.
in which God is called Nirguna.
To-day we quote a Gita verse
Beginningiess,
without
(Nirguna) the Supreme Self (Paramatman) Imperish
able, though seated in the body, O Kaunteya, worketh not, nor
is soiled."* And the whole of chapters 13 and 14 have to be
read to know the precise meanings of Guna, Saguna and
Nirguna. Verses 5 to 18 (chap. 14) define and describe the
Gunas and their varieties
Sattya, Rajas^and Tamas. The three
Gunas areJ^kriJi-hQEP. (14. 5-.
and 13. 19) from which are
all action, causes and effects (13. 23) and from where are all
bodies produced (14. 20.). Sattva is
simply bodily (and mental)
purity leading one to the desire of wisdom and bliss, (14.6),
wisdom light streameth forth from the Sattvic Mari
;
and when
he dies, he goes to the worlds of the Gods (Vijnanaloka) and
he rises upwards. The Sattvic Man is still clothed in the
material (Prakritic) body, and is not yet released from his
bonds, not a Mukta. He is simply what the world esteems as
a wise and great man. On the other hand Rajas_ engenders
passion, engenders thirst for life and is united to action greed,
out-going energy, undertaking of actions, restlessness, desire
and he is again and again born among people attached to action.
Tamas engenders ignorance, delusion, sloth, indolence, darkness,
negligence &c., and he is born and enveloped in the vilest
qualities.
From this Prakriti and the three Gunas born of
Prakriti, is distinguished the Purusha. f Prakrj_tMs,_the_cause
of causes and effects and instruments; and Purusha is the
origin of pleasure and pain .i.e., experiences, and is attached to
the qualities (guna) born of Prakriti, and by this attachment or
Pasa undergoes birth and death. So the reason for its
undergoing birth and death is its attachment to the Gunas,
* Chap. xiii. 31,
fin page 582. Brahmamidin, Purusha, Brahman, and Spirit are
called synonymous terms. In page 247, Mr. Mahadeva Sastrin s Gita
translation, Sankara says, Purusha, Jiva, Kshetrajna, Bhokta, are; all
synonymous terms. So Brahman and Jiva are synonymous !!!