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IIO
Saiva Philosophy in the Purānas [CH. manas, come into being. It is the causal state as such that is called the unmanifested or the avyakta. The effects as transformations are called the vyakta or the manifested; just as a lump of clay may be regarded as the unmanifested and the earthen vessels made out of it are regarded as the manifested. The manifold world of effects find their unity in the unmanifested prakrti, and all bodies, senses, etc. are regarded as being enjoyed through puruṣa.
Vāyu, in further explaining the subject, says that, though it is difficult to find out any proper reason for admitting a universal soul, yet one is forced to admit a universal entity which experiences the enjoyments and sufferings, and which is different from intellect, the senses, and the body. This entity is the permanent enjoyer of all human experiences, even when the body perishes (ayāvad-deha-vedanāt). It is this universal entity to which all objects of experience appeal, it is called the inner controller in the Vedas and the Upanişads. It pervades all things, yet it manifests itself here and there under certain circumstances and is itself unperceivable. It cannot be seen by the eye nor by any of the senses. It is only by the right wisdom of the mind that this great soul or Ātman can be realised. It is unchangeable in all changes and it is the perceiver of all things, though it cannot be perceived itself. Such a great soul is different from the body and the senses, and those who consider it as being identical with the body cannot perceive it. It is by being associated with the body that it undergoes all impurities and suffering, and is drawn to the cycles of births and rebirths by its own deeds. As a field that is flooded with water soon generates new shoots, so in the field of ignorance the karma begins to shoot up and produce bodies which are the source of all miseries. Through the cycle of birth and rebirth one has to experience the fruits of one's karma and so the process goes on. This universal entity appears as many and manifests various intellectual shades in different persons. All our human relations are accidental and contingent, like two pieces of floating wood drawn together by the waves and then separated again. All beings, from the plants to Brahma, are the pašus or manifestations of this
chäditaś ca viyuktaś ca śarīrair esu laksyate, candra-bimba-vad ākāśe taralair abhra-sañcayaih, aneka-deha-bhedena bhinnā vrttir ihātmanaḥ.
Siva-mahapurāna VII. I. 5. 56 et seq.
