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XXXVII] Saiva Philosophy in the Vāyavīya-samhitā 121 and from bindu arises sadāśiva, and from sadāśiva arises Maheśvara, and from him arises true knowledge (śuddha-vidyā), and this is called the logos or the power of speech. This also manifests itself in the form of the alphabetical sounds. From this manifestation of māyā comes kāla or time, niyati, kalā and vidyā. From this māyā again come out the three gunas constituting the unmanifested (avyakta). From the avyakta there evolve the categories as described in the Sāņkhya. In brief it may be said that as the body is permeated by the inner controller, so the whole world is permeated by Siva in His form as śakti. For this reason all the living and the non-living are but manifestations of the sakti. It is the supreme Lord that is associated with knowledge, activity and will, and through them all the supreme Lord controls and pervades the world. The order of the world and the world process is also determined by His will.
That which is imaginatively perceived by the supreme Lord is put into a fact by His will; so, just as the three gunas arise in Him as the three manifested energies, so the whole world, which is identified with Śiva, is also the form of His energy, because it has come into being through His energy?. This sakti of Siva is the māyā.
The Siva-mahāpurāņa refers to the Saivāgamas as being instructions given by Siva to Sivā. It seems, therefore, that the Saivāgamas were written long before the Siva-mahāpurāņa, and it is the substance of the Saivāgamas that is collected in the Sivamahāpurāņa in the elucidation of the Pāśupata view. The instructions of the Saivāgamas are supposed to have been given as the means for the attainment of the highest good through the mercy of Siva, for the benefit of the devotees of Siva?.
Turning to the practical side of the attainment of direct or intuitive knowledge, we find that Siva says that He is only properly approached through sincere faith in Him (śraddhā) and not by
evam sakti-samayogac chaktimān ucyate śivah, śakti-baktimaduttham tu sāktam saivam idam jagat.
Siva-mahāpurāņa VII. 2. 4. 36. śrīkanthena sivenoktam sivāyai ca śivāgamah, śivāśritānām kārunyāc chreyasām ekasādhanam.
Ibid. VII. 2. 7. 38 et seq. It is difficult to say whether this is a reference to the Mahākāruņika school of Saiva thought, as referred to by Sankara in the bhāşya in the penultimate topic of the criticism of Saivism. Brahma-sūtra 11. 2.
