SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

46 THE NATURE OF THE DIVINE PERSONALITY.
Taittiriya Upanishat, as the only true and endless Intelligence,
whose head is
surely Love, joy His right wing. Delight his left;
Bliss his very self; and Who is other than the Atman whom we
iknow to be also Sat, Chit and Ananda. The Gita expressly
speaks of Go^rj as being other than Purusha arid Praknti. The
SvetaSvatara also does the same. The Vedanta sutras sum
up the teaching of the Upanishats beyond all doubt in sutras
17 and 21 of first pada of first chapter; and in the preceding
sutras, God is described as Love, Intelligence, the-inside-of
(antas) of everything, the Light, the Person, the Powerful
One. It is of Him, it is said by the Mundaka, that He perceives
all, knows all, whose penance consists of knowledge ; of whom
the SvetaS vatara and Gita speak of having hands and feet on all
sides, eyes and faces on all sides. Now this is the God, Who is
described as the creator, protector and destroyer and the refuge,
the Truth, the Intelligence, and Love and Bliss, Who is
described as the supporter, spectator, seer and person, and
Who is declared at the same time to be Nirguna, transcending
both Prakriti and Purusha and Gods and Ibvaras. Now
we will ask our Reverend Father Bartoli if he will accept this
Nirguna Being as the true God or the Saguna God or Ibvara
(the lower one referred to in Mantra 7, section vi of Svetabvatara
;
whom we showed in our table as forming the Sakala
jlvas.) And, in fact, the personal God whom our learned
contributor defines and describes is in fact none other than this
Nirguna Being. The Christian ideal of God is also that fie is
the Creator of heaven and earth, the only one Truth and Light
and Intelligence and changeless Substance who loves and
cherishes His creatures and Who is the bridge to immortality
and Who is different from His creatures. The Personal God
of the Christian Theology does not mean a Being who undergoes
change, is clothed in a material body as ourselves, who is born
and dies (though they speak of one incarnation for all time to
come) ever and anon, who has eyes, hands and senses as we
have, and whose intelligence and will and power
limited as ours is. Of course, we have to point out also, that
is finile and