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XXXV] History and Literature of Vira-saivism 55 mind on external forms of worship and later on makes him give them up, so that he ultimately becomes unattached to all kinds of duties, and attains true knowledge by which all his deeds are destroyed. There is not much use in learning or delivering speeches, but what is necessary, is to realise the unity of all with Siva'.
In his conversation with Siddha-rāma and Gorakṣa, he not only demonstrates the non-existence of all things but Siva, but he also shows his familiarity with a type of magical yoga, the details of which are not given and cannot be traced in the Yogaśāstra of Patañjali. In the instruction given by Allama to his pupil Basava, the former explains briefly the nature of bhakti, șaț-sthala and yoga. It seems that the restful passivity that is attained by yoga is nothing but complete and steady identification of the ultimate truth, Siva, with all the variable forms of experience, and our life and experience as a complete person. This yoga leading to the apperception of the ultimate unity can be done by arresting all the vital processes in the nervous centres of the body at higher and higher grades, until these energies become one with the supreme reality, God Siva. It is in this way that the cakras are traversed and passed over till the Yogin settle down in Siva. The entire physical processes being arrested by the peculiar yoga method, our mind does not vaccilate or change, but remains in the consciousness of the pure Lord, Siva.
The teacher of Basava, Allama, says that without a strong effort to make the mind steady by the complete arrest of the vital forces, the Vāyu, there can be no bhakti and no cessation to bondage. It is by the arrest of these vital forces or Vāyu, that the citta or the mind of the Vīra-śaiva becomes arrested and merged in the elemental physical constituents of the body, such as fire, water, etc. The māyā is a product of manas, and vāyu also is regarded as a product of manas, and this vāyu becomes the body through the activity of the manas. The existence of the body is possible only by the activity of the vital forces or vāyu, which keep us away from realising the unity of all things with Siva, which is also called bhakti. The Vīra-śaiva has, therefore, to take recourse to a process opposite to the normal course of activity of the vāyus by concentrating them on one point, and by accepting the mastery of the vāyus over the different cakras or nerve plexuses (technically
1 See Prabhu-linga-lila, ch. 12, pp. 57-8.
