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XXXIV]
Siva-jñāna-bodha is that as pure gold may be associated with dross without affecting its nature, so the pure consciousness that constitutes the Siva within us may remain pure, even though it may be covered with mala from beginningless time. The mala thus does not affect the nature of the self as Siva.
It is by the grace of Siva, attained through proper initiation in Saivism by a proper preceptor, that the impurities can be removed, and not by mere knowledge as such. The mala being the nature of substance, it can be removed only by an action on the part of God. Mere knowledge cannot destroy it. The malas being beginningless are not many but one. According to different kinds of karma, the malas have distinct and different kinds of bondage. The different distinctive powers and obscurations made by the mala serve to differentiate the different selves, which basically are all Siva. Liberation does not mean any transformation, but only the removal of particular malas with reference to which different individual entities as jīvas were passing through the cycle of birth and rebirth. This removal is effected by Siva when the Saiva initiation is taken with the help of proper preceptors?.
The malas consist of dharma and adharma, and may be due to karma or māyā; they also constitute the bondage or the pāśas. This Agama refers to Mrgendrāgama, the doctrines of which it follows in describing the nature of pāśa, mala, etc. The pāśa is really the tirodhānasakti of Śiva. The pāšas are threefold: (1) sahaja, those malas with which we are associated from beginningless time and which stay on until liberation; (2) āgantuka, meaning all our senses and sense-objects; and (3) Sūmsargika, that is those which are produced by the intercourse of sahaja and the āgantuka mala.
The creation and the manifestation of our experiences take place in accordance with our karma as revealed by God. Just as a field sown with seeds does not produce the same kind of crop for every peasant, so in spite of same kinds of actions we may have different kinds of results manifested to us by God. The karmas and other things are all inanimate, and thus it is only by the will of God that different kinds of results are manifested to us. The Saiva view thus upholds the satkārya-vāda theory and regards God as abhivyañjaka or manifestor of all our experiences and karmas.
evañ ca pāśā-panayanad ātmanaḥ sarva-jñatva-sarva-kartytvātmakaśivatvābhivyaktir eva mukti-dašāyām, na tu parināma-svarūpa-vināśaḥ.
