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XXXVIII] Saiva Philosophy according to Bhoja 167 cause or the manners in which the illusion has been generated. The original text of the Tattva-prakāśa is also quite unilluminating regarding this vital matter. Aghora-śivācārya often refers to the Mrgendrāgama for his support, but the Mrgendrāgama does not follow the Sāmkhya course of evolution as does the Tattvaprakāśa. There we hear of atoms constructed and arranged by the will of God, which is more in line with the Nyāya point of view.
Dealing with the nature of the soul, it is said that the souls are anus in the sense that they have only a limited knowledge. The souls are essentially of the nature of Siva or God, but yet they have an innate impurity which in all probability is due to the influx of māyā into them. Nothing is definitely said regarding the nature of this impurity and how the souls came by it. Śrīkumāra explains this impurity on the Vedāntic lines as being of the nature of avidyā, etc. But Aghora-śivācārya does not say anything on this point. It is said that when by the fruition of action the impurity will ripen, God in the form of preceptor would give proper initiation, so that the impurity may be burnt out, and the souls so cleansed or purified may attain the nature of Siva. Before such attainment Siva may appoint some souls, which had had their impurities cleansed, to certain mythical superintendence of the worlds as vidyeśvaras or mantreśvaras. At the time of the cycles of rebirth, the individual souls, which have to pass through it for the ripening of their actions, do so in subtle bodies called the puryaşțaka (consisting of the subtle matter, buddhi, ahankāra, and manas)
Turning to the categories, we see that the so-called pāśa is also in reality a derivative of the energy of Siva, and for this reason the pāśa may be a blinding force, and may also be withdrawn at the time of liberation. The category of Siva or śiva-tattva, also called bindu, makes itself the material for the creation of the fivefold pure tattvas and the other impure categories up to gross matter, earth. These fivefold pure categories are śiva-tattva, sakti-tattva, sadāśiva-tattva, īśvara-tattva, and vidyā-tattva. The bodies of these pure categories are derived from the pure māyā, called the mahāmāyā. Next to these we have the pure-and-impure categories of kāla, niyati, kalā, vidyā, and rāga, which are a sort of link between the souls and the world, so that the souls may know and
