SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

66 GOD AND THE WOULD.
them. In a sense, this view is also the true monistic view.
Say from the individual standpoint, when the man is in a pure
objective condition, his mind becomes merged in the body ; the
mind identifies itself thoroughly with the body and is not
conscious of its own distinction from the body. By this process
of merger and complete identification, the apparent existence is
only one, that of the object ;
when the mind is free from all
object consciousness, the object world vanishes as it were, and
there is only one fact present, and that is the mind, and nothing
else. Without mind, however, nothing else can subsist, and
when the mind is in its own place, nothing else is seen to sub
sist. And how appropriate does the interpretation of that oftquoted
and oft-abused Vedic text, Ekam evadviilyam Brahma
by Saint Meykandan seem now ! When we arrive at the postu
late of God, we arrive at the third padartha, and nobody
has yet been found to postulate an existence, higher than
these three. And these constitute the tri-padartha
of most
of the Hindu schools. They differ, no doubt, in the definition
and description of these three entities, as also in the des
cription of their relationships. This third postulate could
not be arrived at by direct perception, observation and experi
ment. We think however it can be proved by strict logical
methods, by such proof as is possible, and we are at liberty to
postulate it to explain the residuary facts unexplained by the
Materialists and Idealists. If this postulate will explain facts,
left unexplained by these people, and if it will not contradict
any of the facts of human nature and probabilities, there no is1
harm in having it for a workable hypothesis. We believe
also that the Materialists and Idealists leave many facts
unexplained and that this third postulate is necessary to
explain these facts. We, however, do not propose to go
into this wide question now. We only propose to discuss
God s relation to mind (soul) and matter just at presem.
And the relation we postulate is the same as between mind
and body which we have already postulated, and we call \t by
the same name advaita* . And the couplet we have quoted from