________________
158 Saiva Philosophy in some Important Texts [CH. things are perceived are also unconscious. Conscious experience can only originate by the energy of Siva. This energy, like a ray of sun, is the original sakti or energy which is indistinguishable from Siva. The Saiva Siddhānta school is in direct opposition to the Cārvāka school which denies the existence of any creator. The Saiva Siddhānta school argues for the existence of a supreme Being who evolves, sustains, and involves the phenomenal universe. The whole universe, constituted of all beings, male and female, and those which are without life, but which come into phenomenal existence, subsists for a while and then subsides; but yet, as we have said before, this does not clarify our knowledge regarding the nature of the physical world and of the souls. It does not explain how beings became associated from the beginning with impurities called āņava-mala. Even at the attainment of release the souls could not be united or become one with God. Other forms of Saivism have attempted to follow slightly diverse lines to avoid these difficulties.
Though śakti is regarded as a part of Siva—and this has led to many mystical aspects of Tantra philosophy—yet the relation of the individual devotees to God is one of servitude and entire selfsurrender. It has none of the amorous sides of rapturous love that we notice among the Vaişņava saints, the Arvārs.
Tiru-vāchakam may in some sense be regarded as a spiritual biography of Māņikka-vāchakar which records his experiences at different times of his life and explains. The work is full of his religious experiences and enthusiasm, showing different states of religious pathology. Thus he says:
What shall I do while twofold deeds' fierce flame burns still out,Nor doth the body melt, nor falsehood fall to dust? In mind no union gained with the “Red fire's honey"
The Lord of Perun-turrai fair!1
Shall I cry out, or wait, or dance or sing, or watch? O Infinite, what shall I do? The Siva who fills With rapturous image-great Perun-turrai's Lord Let all with me bending adore! He filled with penury; set me free from 'births,' my soul With speechless fervours thrilled, blest Perun-turrai's Lord, - The Siva in grace exceeding made me His; the balm For all my pain, the deathless Bliss !3
1 Tiru-vāchakam, p. 334.
? Ibid.
3 Ibid. p. 336.
