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62
[CH.
Vira-saivism As sthala is of two parts, Brahma and jīva, so His śakti is also twofold. It is indeterminate and is called Maheśvara. It assumes two forms by its own pure spontaneity. One part of it may be regarded as associated with linga, the Brahman, and the other with anga, the jīva. In reality sakti and bhakti are the same. When the energy moves forward for creation it is called sakti as pravrtti, and as cessation nivrtti is called bhakti”. On account of the diverse nature of bhakti its indeterminateness disintegrates into various forms. The twofold functions of sakti as the upper and the lower show themselves in the fact that the upper one tends to manifest the world and the lower one, appearing as bhakti, tends to return to God. In these twofold forms the same sakti is called māyā and bhakti. The sakti in the linga appears as the bhakti in the anga, and the unity of linga and anga is the identity of Siva and jīva.
The linga-sthala is threefold, as: (1) bhāva-linga; (2) prānalinga; and (3) işğa-linga. The bhāva-linga can only be grasped through inner intuition as pure Being, and this bhāva-linga is called niskala. Prāņa-linga is the reality as grasped by thought and as such it is both indeterminate and determinate. The ista-linga is that which fulfils one's good as self-realisation or adoration, and it is beyond space and time.
The ultimate sakti as being pure cessation and beyond all, is śāntyatīta; the next one is icchā-sakti, called also vidyā as pure knowledge. The third one is called the kriyā-śakti which leads to cessation. The three śaktis of icchā, jñāna and kriyā become sixfold.
The six sthalas are again described as follows:
(1) That which is completely full in itself, subtle, having no beginning nor end, and is indefinable, but can be grasped only by the intuition of the heart as the manifestation of pure consciousness, is called the mahātma-linga.
Chat in which we find the seed of development as consciousness beyond the senses, called also the sādākhya-tattva, is called prasāda-ghana-linga.
(3) The pure luminous puruşa, which is without inward and outward, without any form, and known by the name Atman, is called the cara-linga.
2
Śakti-bhaktyor na bhedo 'sti. Anubhava-sūtra, p. 8. Śaktyā prapañca-systih syāu, bhaktya tad-vilayo matah.
Ibid.
