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Literature of Southern Saivism
CH.
Mātanga-parameśvara-tantra. The Saiva śāstra is described as sat-padārtha and catus-pāda and not as tri-padārtha and catus-pāda; formerly it was written by Sadā-siva in ten million verses and Ananta summarised it in one lakh verses, which has been further summarised in 3500 verses. The six categories are (1) pati; (2) sakti; (3) triparvā; (4) pasu; (5) bodha; and (6) mantra.
Sakti or energy is the means by which we can infer pati, the possessor of śakti. In inference we sometimes infer the possessor of the quality by its quality, and sometimes the cause from the effect or the effect from the cause. Sometimes the existence of a thing is taken for granted on the authority of the Vedas. From the body of Siva, which is of the nature of mantras, the sakti emanates downwards in the form of bindu, which later on develops into the world?. Siva enters into the bindu and unfolds it for various types of creation. The diversity in the world is due to a difference in karma and guņa of the individual souls, where the individual souls may be regarded as the container and the karma as contained. The individual souls are responsible for their actions and have to enjoy their good or bad fruits. God is the controller of the creation, maintenance and destruction of the world. It is He who is the instrumental cause of the world, and the energies are the material cause and are regarded as the samavāyi-kāraṇa of the world. This world is the production of māyā. As the rays of the sun or the moon induce the blooming of flowers spontaneously without any actual interference, so the Siva manifests the world by His mere proximity.
Seven sahaja-malas have been enumerated as follows: (1) moha, (2) mada, (3) rāga, (4) visāda, (5) soșa, (6) vaicitta and (7) harşa.
The kalās are produced from māyā, and it is in association with māyā that they carry on their work, just as paddy seeds can
roduce shoots in association with the husk in which they are enclosed.
The souls as they are driven through the world, become attached to worldly things through kalā. This association is further
It is traditionally believed that the mantras or hymns constitute the body of a deity.
