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XXXVII] Saiva Philosophy in the Vāyavīya-samhitā III puruşa. It is the puruşa that is bound by the ties of pleasure and pain, and is like the plaything of the great Lord. It is ignorant and impotent, and cannot provide for its pleasure or arrange for the dispelling of sorrow.
We have already seen the nature of the pašu and the pāśa. The pāśa is the energy or sakti of Siva manifesting itself as prakrti; it evolves the material world, the subjective world, as well as pleasures and pains, which fetter the universal soul, the pašu, appearing as many under different conditions and circumstances. We cannot fail to note that the puruṣa or Atman here is not many as the puruşas of the Sāmkhya or the Atmans of the Nyāya, or of some other systems of Saiva thought. The idea of the Vedāntic monism is eclectically introduced here, and we are faced with the conception of one puruşa which appears as many in different bodies under different conditions. This one purusa is all-pervading, and it is on account of its being reflected through various conditions that it appears in various divergent forms of things, ranging from Brahma to a blade of grass.
But the supreme Lord who possesses an infinite number of excellent and attractive qualities is the creator of both the pašu and the pāśa. Without Him there could not be any creation of the universe, for both the paśu and the pāśa are inanimate and without knowledge. We must remember that according to Sāmkhya the puruṣas are nothing but pure consciousness, but here they are regarded as the reflection of one conscious entity appearing as many through its being reflected in various conditions or environments. Beginning from the prakyti down to the atoms, we have only the inanimate things entering into various modifications. This could not have been if they were not created and moulded by an intelligent creator. This world consisting of parts is an effect, and must therefore have an agent to fashion it. The agency as the supreme Lord, the Creator, belongs to Siva and not to the soul or to the bondage. The soul itself is moved into activity by the motivity of God. When an individual thinks of himself as the agent of his action, it is only a wrong impression of the nature of causality (ayathā-karana-jñāna). It is only when one knows oneself to be different from the true motivating agent that one may ultimately attain immortality. The kșara and akşara, that is, the pāśa and the pašu, are all associated with each other and they are both main
