"Siddhanta Teaches Thou Art Siva"
Meykandar

These are issues that we have to ponder over a while and let it sink in, as we
have been so long fixated to given ideas, this ruthless discrediting would be
mentally violating. Dazed and disoriented, one may console oneself and walk away
thinking this is just a minority opinion of a misguided person, or a
mistranslation by foreigners. But have a look below (at the bottom of the page)
of a translation of the SJB by one of the greatest and most prolific of all
tamil poets, listed among 'Worlds Great Men', Kavi Yogi Shuddhananda Bharati.
(http://www.srambharati.com/sria/anglais/Association/DrShuddhananda.html).

A careful reading shows there is no pluralism at all in the SJB. In fact, in the
first verse Meykandar states that all things -- which he calls "he, she and it"
-- undergo the three processes (creation, preservation and dissolution). He also
states that Siva is Himself the end and the source of existence. Meykandar
speaks of God, the Creator, as Beginning and End. Nowhere does he tell us that
souls coexist from eternity with God, that there were three things in the
beginning and will be three in the end. Rather, he clearly states that there is
one Beginning, God; there is one End, God. Antham aathi - the end (is/becomes)
the beginning. Nor does he speak of an eternal, uncreated world. He assures that
God created in the beginning and will reabsorb in the end.

I can provide any amount of quotes from the shastras, but we have all been
through that tiring route umpteen times before. The vedas, agamas, upanishads,
tirumantiram all use analogies to explain emanation and dissolution. The Raurava
Agama itself describes creation as a spark of fire or light issuing forth from
the third eye of the Creator. All these we shall put aside to consider what the
Meykandar Shastras says.

Meykandar says,

5. 2 (a) "Siva is not conscious of the non-real (world), because the non-real is
nothing."

6.2(b) "All the organs of knowledge are non-real; therefore none knows the One.
And thou, the knower, cannot know (Him). If thou knewest Him, He would be (an
object) other than thou. He who has seen the Truth knows (Him) by Himeslf. So he
does not know the Peerless One as (an object) other than himself.

7.1 In His presence there is no inglorious non-real, even as there is no
darkness in the presence of the sun.

8.4(a) The soul, like a great river dammed, escaping from the restriction of
sense-knowledge attains the everlasting feet of Hara and never returns, just as
the river bursting the dam flows into the sea and merges itself therein.

12.4(d) O thou who hast learnt the Siddhanta that thou art Siva, souls with one
and with two Impurities become Siva, where there is no rebirth.."

I have been quoting the SJB and the Meykandar Karutturai verbatim. None of these
is my words.

It is Meykandar himself who uses the analogy of water merging with water, and
exclaims 'thou art Siva'. In his own words he says that 'siddhanta teaches thou
art Siva'.

He so clearly speaks of the 'non real' (world) and of vanishing without a trace.
He says the world is non-real and therefore Siva does not know the world, as it
does not exist, as the darkness does not exist when there is light. He says only
the soul perceives the world, only for the souls do the world seems to exist,
and in ignorance it clings to it. In his own words Meykandar debunks triadism.

There is laya, pralaya and mahapralaya. The agamas only deals with pralaya (as
mahapralaya is too far away). Even Arulnandi, the most respected of Meykandar's
commentators, admitted to the completeness of mahapralaya and thereby
transcended pluralism to absolute monism at mahapralaya when he wrote in
Sivajnana Siddhiyar:

Only One remains at the end of time.
If two others (pashu-souls and pasham-fetters) also
remained at their posts, then it cannot be.

One cannot say this and not be a monist.

All these remains irrefutable, BECAUSE I have not quoted any 'authority' even
once all this while. I have not quoted any veda, agama, upanishad, or
tirumantiram, but I have simply reproduced verbatim the words of the grandmaster
logicians Meykandar and Arulnandi from their texts, which is the subject of
discussion! (One can only refute what is not one's own position. One cannot
refute one's own position.)

The SivaJnana Bodham and the Meykandar Karutturai is entirely monistic-theistic,
consistent with the Tirumantiram and the Agamas, and this is attested
unequivocally by Arulnandi. We have brought an epoch to an end.

As there can be no refutations, and my post can only be responded to with
elegant silence indicating negative concurrence, we could proceed to
corroborating the siddhanta rationalisations.

Regards.

Pathma










Siva Jnana Bodham

as translated by

Kavi Yogi Shuddhananda Bharati, 'The Revelations of Saint Meykandar'.


1. He, she and it -- these are the three terms in which the cosmic entity is
spoken of. This cosmos undergoes three changes -- birth, growth and death --
triple functions. It appears, stays and disappears; but it reappears by dint of
the ego-consciousness which binds it. He who ends it is its origin. He, Hara, is
the Supreme Master: so say the seers of knowledge.

2. He is one with souls; yet He is Himself unattached, beyond all. He is
identified with His willpower, His knowledge-force in inseparable union. Through
this force, He pervades all and submits souls to birth and death, allowing them
to eat the fruits of their dual acts [good and bad deeds].

3. Because it says: "The body is the mechanism of nature. A soul dwells in its
core." For it responds, "Yes" or "No." It asserts, "This is my body." It feels
the five sensations. It is conscious in dreams. It does not hunger or eat or act
in deep sleep. It knows when taught.

4. The soul is none of the antahkaranas [the inner faculties or senses]. The
soul does not feel shrouded by egoism. It is cognizant only in conjunction with
the Inner Instruments, just as the king knows the state of affairs through his
ministers. Similar is the relation of the soul with the five planes of
experience, too.

5. The senses perceive and carry impressions of external objects to the mind.
But they cannot know themselves; nor do they know the soul. The soul perceives
through the senses and the mind. But similarly, it cannot know itself or God. It
is the Divine Grace that activates it, just like a magnet activates iron.

6. If [God] is knowable, then He is nonreal; if unknowable, He does not exist.
Therefore, the wise of the world say that He is neither of the two, but the
Supreme Reality, both knowable and unknowable. [This version is from Mariasusai
Dhavamony's Love of God According to Saiva Siddhanta, who renders this sutra and
the next more adequately.]

7. Before Being, all things are nonexistent; hence, Being does not know
[nonbeing]; nonbeing does not exist, so it cannot know [Being]. Therefore, that
which knows both [Being and nonbeing] is the soul, which is neither Being nor
nonbeing [Dhavamony].

8. When the soul is sufficiently advanced in tapasya (spiritual discipline), the
Supreme Lord comes in the form of a divine master. He instructs the soul: "O
Soul, thou hast fallen into the hands of the hunters [the senses]; growing up
among them, thou hast forgotten the Lord, who is thy very core. Awake!" The soul
wakes up to Reality, renounces all attachments to the senses. It devotes itself
unreservedly and uniquely to Hara and attains His Blessed Feet."

9. The Lord cannot be seen by carnal eyes, by the senses. The eye of knowledge
must open. Thought must fix in it. Bondage of the lower nature must be left off
as a mirage. Then the soul finds shelter in God. To attain this blissful state,
the soul should meditate upon the mantra Namah Sivaya.

10. Siva is one with the soul. The soul must merge its individuality, become one
with Him and do His Will; then there shall be no stain of maya and karma left in
its immaculate self.

11. The soul sees and enables the eye to see. Even so, Hara sees, knows and
enables the soul to see and know. The soul, by ceaseless devotion (love),
attains the feet of Hara.

12. The three-fold impurities prevent the soul from attaining the virtuous,
puissant feet of Hara. After washing off their stains, the liberated soul should
keep the company of devotees, full of devotion, devoid of delusion and worship
the forms and images in temples as Hara Himself.