THE METAPHYSICS OF SAIVA SIDDHANTA
The Siddhantin starts his quest from the seen to the unseen. Siddhanta believes in the three eternal categories or entities, Irai, Uyir, and Kattu or God, Soul and Bondage.(Pati, Pasu and Pasam). They are called the Tripadartas. The phenomenal world demonstrable as he, she and it, is found to consist of Mind and Matter, or sentient and non-sentient bodies. Matter, the product of causation, is subject to change and in undergoing evolution and involution. Every object is found to have its birth, growth and decay. Matter or Maya is evolved out of its primordial substance or Suddha Maya. The Siddhantin uses the word 'Maya' not in the sense of 'illusion'. No illusions are not admissable in Siddhanta. The Tamil word 'Maya' is a compound of 'Mai' and 'Ayi', meaning destruction and evolution. As we have said, Maya undergoes Srishti, Stithi and Samharam. Samharam is not destruction in its real sense but means only reduction to its primordial nature or state. Pati, Pasu and Pasa are eternal. They have no beginning or end.
Pasa connotes three principles, Mala, Maya and Karma. Sometimes Mayeyam and Tirothana are added and spoken of as five Mala is Anavamala, the principle of egoism, which obscures the light, intelligence or purity of the soul. Like the verdigris or rust in copper, Anavamala is attached to the soul from time without beginning. In its Kevala state the soul is completely enveloped in the darkness of Anava mala. The universe is formed from chaos to invest the soul with Tanu, Karana, Bhuvana and Bhoga. The soul assumes these four according to its Karma. Karma is an ever-flowing stream, the result of which is bondage to the cycle of rebirth. But it is not a self-sufficient principle, for though not originated by the Lord, it has yet to be directed by Him. The apparent inequalities of dispensation, however, are due to the varying potencies of different Karmas, not to the Lord's direction. Release for the soul cannot take place until Karma fructifies, and is fully experienced through enjoyment or suffering. The Lord wills to release all, but His will is effective only in the case of those who have attained Malaparipaka, that is, whose Karma has ripened; just as the sun, whose action is impartial and uniform, can yet make only those lotus buds bloom as are ready.
The soul is caught in the chain of births and deaths to eat the fruits of its Karma. But the soul with all its limitations, cannot do all these things of its own accord. The power or force that drives the soul to undergo all the evolutionary changes and eats the fruits of Karma is the Arul Sakti of God, which in this aspect is called Tirothana. God is Omnipresent and Omniscient. His Omnipresence is achieved by the diffusion of his Sakti or energy which emanates from Him like rays from the sun. Though He pervades in everything, He is unaffected by Anavamala.
The creative activity of the Lord is mere sport for Him. It is called Tiruvilaiyadal in Tamil. By sport is meant not child's play. It is sport in this sense that He toils not and suffers not for this. He accomplishes what is impossible for others with ease and lightness. By His mere Sankalpa, volition or will-power He creates the worlds. This creation has a purpose underlying it. Of course, the Lord has no affections or aversions. But out of His abundant Grace He performs this function to release the souls from bondage. If they were left to rot and rust in eternal chaotic darkness, their Karma will not fructify and they cannot shake off their Mala. Light and happiness will be tabooed for them. So He evolves cosmos out of chaos and allows the souls to assume bodies according to their Karma and eat the fruits thereof. He must not be charged with partiality or cruelty; for in all His acts, He is guided by the accumulated merit and demerit of the souls. And it must also be remembered that He is not responsible for this Karma which is beginningless, as Time itself, coming down in an unbroken current. Karma cannot act by itself and so is activated by God; but it produces its set results of good and bad which in their turn, are dependent on the actions of the soul. The freedom and individual responsibility of the soul, also, are thus secured without affecting in any way the Omnipotence of the Almighty. The world is not a factory of soul-making for souls are eternal. The world is only a furnace in which the souls, by a succession of births and deaths are cleansed and purified as a base metal is turned into gold by fire. When Karma fructifies, knowledge is generated and God manifests Moksa or Supreme Bliss.
Matter or Maya has no intelligence. The souls have intelligence. Pr.William James, in his book, "The Principles of Psychology", has very well brought out the difference between intelligent and non-intelligent beings. The magnet, for instance, attracts iron-filings. But if an obstruction, like a piece of card is placed in between, the iron filings, because they have no intelligence to get over the obstacle, fail to reach the magnet. Not so with living beings. "Romeo wants Juliet as the filings want the magnet, and if no obstacles intervene, he moves towards her by a straight a line as they. But Romeo and Juliet, if a wall be built between them, do not remain idiotically pressing their faces against its opposite sides, like the magnet and the filings with the card. Romeo soon finds a circuitous way, by scaling the wall or otherwise, of touching Juliet's lips directly. With the filings the path is fixed; whether it reaches the end depends on accidents. With the lover it is the end which is fixed, the path may be modified indefinitely. The pursuance of future ends and choice of means for their attainment are thus the mark of criterion of the presence of mentality in a phenomenon."
The Siddhanta has excelled all other systems of philosophy in its wonderful progress in the scientific diagnosis of Nature. While the other systems pursued the analysis of the Maya or matter down to the substratum of Mulaprakriti only, the Siddhantin plunged deeper and detected that even behind it there could be found a dozen more tatvas or reals of a far more refined type than Mulaprakriti. Thus there are thirty-six tatvas or the constituent principles of our being, through which the Maya Sakti stimulates evolution, as recognised in Siddhanta. They are of three classes, namely, 24 acutta tatvas, 7 cuttacutta tatvas and 5 cutta tatvas. These three classes are also known as Anma tatvas, Vidya tatvas and Siva Tatvas respectively.
The acutta tatvas are
5 mahaputam
5 tanmattirai
5 kanmentiriyam
5 gnanentiriyam and the
4 antakaranas.
These 24 are impure categories.
The 7 cuttacutta tatvas or categories which are pure as well as impure, are,
Kalam,
Niyati,
Kalai,
Vittai,
Arakam,
Purutan and
Mayai.
The last class of cutta tatvas or pure categories are 5 in number, viz,
Cuttavittai,
Iswaram,
Catakyam,
Sakti and
Sivam.
These tatvas are placed in an ascending order in the form of a ladder. The lowest tatva is the Pritivi and the Highest is Siva. The soul should ascend these stairs of tatvas and reach the top-most tatva, viz., Sivam and when that also is subsumed, the soul attains Moksa. Sometimes, these 36 tatvas are further analysed into 96 tatvas. God Siva is above all these tatvas and so He is called Tattuvatitan. What Siddhanta has to say about these tatvas is crystallised in a delightful form in one of Saint Appar's Tevaram hymns:-
"¾òÐÅó ¾¨Ä ¸ñ¼È¢ šâ¨Äò
¾òÐ Åó¾¨Ä ¸ñ¼Å÷ ¸ñÊÄ÷
¾òÐ Åó¾¨Ä ¿¢ýÈÅ÷ì ¸øÄÐ
¾òÐ ÅÉÄý ¾ñÒ¸ æçÉ.""To rise above the tatvas is rarely sought;
Their heading o'er you is to see nought;
Those alone who on tatvas' summit stand
Will espy the Pugalur Lord in Truth expand."Maya is capable of motion but cannot move itself. It has been evolved into forms, such as he, she and it. In the same way as a pot requires a potter, the universe also requires a grand force to set it in motion. This grand force is the first cause and the grand Artificer, the Supreme Siva. Maya is the material cause (Upadana Karana); God is the efficient cause (Nimitta Karana)m and His Chit Sakti or Force is the instrumental cause (Tunai Karana). The Siddhantin does not concede that God is the material cause of the universe. The attempt to make out that God, in conjuction with Maya or Sakti, functions as the material cause, finds no favour with the Siddhantin; for, he contends, to be a material cause in any sense, whether as co-operating with Maya as each strand of a rope co-operates with the other, or as qualified by Maya is to be subject to transformation; and the scriptures which proclaim God's immutability are more direct and more authoritative than any promissory statement about, universal knowledge, resulting from the knowledge of the One. Siva is the Lord of the Universe and knowledge of the owner implies knowledge of His possessions. He who understands the king may be said to understand his ministers as well. The efficient cause as directing the material cause, but this is only a mode of speech with little value; for in this sense, even the potter is the material cause of the pot. From the atom to the great fire-ball, the sun, from the minutest molecule to the mountainous volcano, everything is moved by the Force of God. This is well stated in Tiruvacakam.
"Å¡É¡¸¢ Áñ½¡¸¢ ÅǢ¡¸¢ ´Ç¢Â¡¸¢
°É¡¸¢ ¯Â¢Ã¡¸¢ ¯ñ¨ÁÔÁ¡ö þý¨ÁÔÁ¡öì
§¸¡É¡¸¢ ¡¦Éɦ¾ý ÈÅÃŨÃì Üò¾¡ðÎ
Å¡É¡¸¢ ¿¢ýÈ¡¨Â ±ý ¦º¡øÄ¢ Å¡úòÐŧÉ.""Thou art the Heaven; Thou art the Earth;
Thou art the wind; Thou art the Light;
The Body Thou; the Soul art Thou;
Existence, Non-existence Thou;
Thou art the king; These puppets all Thou
dost make move, dwelling within,
That each one says; 'Myself and Mine.'
What shall I say? How render praise?"Hara or Siva, the Samharakarta or Destroyer is also the author of Srsti. Hence He is the One Supreme Being. All changes are wrought by Him but He remains unchanged. During Samharam, even His agent-gods of Srsti, and Stithi, perish. So the Supreme Destroyer has also got to be the Creator to re-create them. These facts are graphically described in a sacred verse of Saint Appar:
"¦ÀÕí¸¼ø ãÊôÀ¢ÃÇÂí¦¸¡ñÎ À¢ÃÁÛõ §À¡ö
þÕí¸¼ø ãÊ Â¢ÈìÌõ þÈó¾¡ý ¸§ÇÀÃÓõ
¸Õí¸¼ø Åñ½ý ¸§ÇÀÃÓí ¦¸¡ñÎ ¸í¸¡Çáö
ÅÕí¸¼øÁ£Ç ¿¢ýÚ ±õÁ¢¨È ¿øÅ£¨½ Å¡º¢ì̧Á.""When the waters of the big sea envelope the universe in one great deluge, Brahma himself slides in and dies; (Vishnu too dies); Our Lord Siva, rising above the raging deep wearing the dead bones of Brahma and the sea-coloured god (Vishnu), plays upon His faultless Veena to see the return of the lost world."
We may place here in juxta-position and read those famous lines of the Bible:
"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
Destruction does not mean total annihilation but only reduction of the Maya to its pristine condition or subtle state to give rest to the tired souls.
God is all (i.e., Prapancha) but all is not God. He is therefore all and not all. He is immanent in everything and yet above everything. The Siddhantin expresses this vividly in the telling phrase "±øÄ¡Á¡ö «øÄ×Á¡ö". His state is inconceivable and difficult for human thought. He is all Gnanam. It is his great Chaitanyam that fills the whole universe. He dwells in and around us. He is Siva, the Almighty and the All Merciful. He is in Adwaita form of relation with the world. Adwaita does not mean Ekam or Monism. The negative prefix 'A' is not used in the Abhava sense or þý¨Áô¦À¡Õû like Abramana. It does not negative the positive existence of one or other of the two. Nor it is used in the sense of opposition or ÁÚ¾¨Äô¦À¡Õû, like Anidhi. Siddhanta says that it is used in «ñ¨Áô¦À¡Õû, in the sense of non-dualism (two-less), such as the word Anekam does not negate the existence of one. The relation between God and the soul cannot be Aikkyam, as in the combination of the river and the sea, because it implies substantial identity, which does not exist between them. Again it cannot be Tadatmiyam, as quality and its possessor, Guna and Guni, because the soul is a separate entity, possessing its own qualities. Nor can it be one of Saiyogam, as the combination of one finger and another finger; for it cannot be applied to a union of a pervading thing and a pervaded thing. The union is one of Adwaita, as the combination of the light of the sun with the power of the eye to see things. God stands in relation to the soul, as the soul to they body. As the eyes cannot see but for the light of the soul, the soul cannot know but for the light of God. God and soul are one in the sense that they cannot be disjoined; they exist and function together, not as if they were two distinct beings. Their unity, however, is not that of the one causing or being transformed into the other.
God Siva engages in the five-fold activity, viz, creation, protection, destruction, obscuration and benediction, solely with the object of helping the souls by bestowing His grace when the time is ripe. Obscuration is concealment or Tirobhava and benediction is grace or Anugraha.