Jiva

MIND, MATTER AND GOD : JIVA, JADA AND ISVARA
M.M.NINAN
The dates of Tirumūlar's life are controversial, and because his work makes reference
to so many currents of religious thought, the dates that different scholars assign are
often appealed to for anchoring the relative chronology of other religious literature in
Tamil and Sanskrit. Verse 74 of the Tirumantiram makes the claim that Tirumūlar lived
for 7 yuga before composing the Tirumantiram. Some are therefore inclined to place his
composition well before the Common Era.
Some puts it between the 4th and 6th
centuries A.D. The scholar and lexicographer S. Vaiyapuripillai, however, suggested
that he probably belonged to the beginning of the eighth-century AD, Others wish to
push the date still later: Dominic Goodall, for instance, appears to suggest, on the
grounds of religious notions that appear in the work with Sanskrit labels for which a
certain historical development can be traced in other datable works, that the
Tirumantiram cannot be placed before the eleventh or twelfth century AD
Saiva Siddhanta
In the Vishista Advaita concept the reality is God, Soul, and the World. Saiva Siddhanta
in fact adds more eternal realities: good and evil, light and darkness, God, soul and
world as the saguna Brahman appears.
Siva is All:
Saivism describes three perfections of God Siva.
The highest is Parasivam, timeless, formless, spaceless and causeless. This is
Siva's transcendence, His inmost core and Being for which no description is
possible, except to say "Not this. Not that." This is the Nirguna Brahman of
Advaita.
Satchidananda is Siva's immanent perfection, often described as Pure
Consciousness, Love, Light and Energy pervading all things. It is the Primal
Substance of which all else is made, the "clay" of the cosmos. This is the first
appearance of the Saguna Brahman.
Siva is the Beginning and the End, the Author of Existence. Siva is both material
and efficient Cause, and thus His act of manifestation is likened in scripture to
sparks issuing forth from a fire or a web spun from the body of a spider.
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