One of the important things that one must understand from TIRUMANDIRAM is that all living beings in this world from lives from its birth to its death without utterly understanding the purpose of its worldly life. Forgot realizing the purpose, most of us do not even know that there is a purpose to life. The cycle of birth and death occurs until the purpose of life is understood. As soon as the purpose is understood, Siva then start helping us.
Tirumoolar generally calls Siva as Nandi whereas others use it to refer to Siva’s mount, Nandi the bull. Here he talks about Siva’s third eye which bestows grace. He is the only God who can release one from the cycle of birth and death. The other gods bestow a lot of boons and materialistic gifts, but they cannot cut the cord of the birth-death cycle. Why? because even they must go through this cycle.
Whoever has a status, or a position of power has ego. That is why the 4 revered nayanmars shunned all positions and asked only for the blessing to pay obeisance to Siva and attain His grace. Siva is the only one without ego because He Himself does not know His position or status.
We become one with Him when we experience Him.
Words without experience are just that, words. They will not have the soul in them. Only those words which have the weight of experience behind them make the heart melt in compassion. That is why Siva can only be experienced and not understood. We stand apart from God when we say we pray and perform poojas whereas we are with Siva when we experience Him.
Siva, His actions, and impurities
What happens to Siva when He performs the actions? Does He get tainted by the action or the impurities? A doctor and the nurses are well protected before operating on a patient not only to not infect the patient but also to prevent from infecting themselves. These days a doctor sitting in one end of the world can operate on a patient on the other end of the world. Like a laser or ultra-violet rays which are used to disinfect surgical tools as well as operate on patients, He burns the impurities using His third eye.
The point is that the soul gets tainted by what it comes into contact. Until now, the soul was bounded by Binds and was in darkness. When Tirumoolar’s soul realized Siva, the soul was unbounded from Binds and Grace bestowed.
The third realizes even without explanation or experience and it is Siva (Pati).
The basic concepts of Saiva Siddantam fit into the 3 things and differs from Vedanta. Pati (Siva), Pasu (Soul) and Binds (inanimate objects). The difference between Soul (animate) and Binds (inanimate objects) is that the Soul realizes when explained to or when it experiences whereas Binds (inanimate objects) cannot realize even when explained to or by experience.
Ignorance and realization
What ignorance or darkness does is, it hides the realization and shows itself. For example, if one goes into a dark room, the darkness hides the objects in the room but shows itself. But the ego hides the realization as well as itself. That is why most people do not even realize it because it hides itself in every thought, word, and action.
Ego is not only being hot headed but also includes worrying. When someone close or known to us is in trouble, we worry about them as if only we care about them and can solve their problems and take care of them. The point is who was caring about them before they were born? Were we doing it? Do even know where they were before they were born or where they go after their demise?
We feel sad when we are separated from someone. Again, the same question applies, you would have known that person either for a few months or for a few decades at the max. Did you feel sad before you met the person, or did you stay sad after being separated from that person? This is an identity of the ego.
Ego is not just being hot-headed or bossy or that one I can accomplish it, it has almost 7 facets. The point is Siva is ready to bestow Grace and Soul is ready to receive it, but the binds acts as a curtain preventing this transfer. The question is if God is Supreme why can’t He remove this veil and bestow grace? Yes, Siva can, but the soul is still desirous of the bonds and remains so.
Advice, Instructions and Guru.
If a normal person shares some helpful information, it is called as advice whereas when a guru shares an information with a disciple, then it is called instructions. These 30 are divine instructions that Saint Tirumoolar shares with the Saiva followers. Generally, instructions are short and hence Saint Tirumoolar has condensed the gist of the 3000 verses into these 30 verses. In life we can accept anyone as guru but depending on our maturity, Siva reveals the appropriate guru to us. In short, we should consider that Saint Tirumoolar himself is instructing us when we read these 30 divine instructions based on his experiences.
Generally, the guru shares his wisdom in short and concise words. It is our responsibility to dig deeper and find the meaning through experiences and questioning. Of course, there is indeed effort involved. If it were so easy everyone would have done it.
So, the question arises as to why one needs 3000 verses when Saint Tirumoolar as condensed it into 30 verses. The word to note here is ‘condensed’. In our day to day lives, not all have the opportunity to read 3000 verses due to various reasons. Some factors that can be changed and those that cannot be. Hence this 30 is for those who are limited by external factors outside their control and still be able to profit from this immense wisdom.
Detachment and daily life
Generally, bondage does not allow the soul to reach Siva. So, if we can cut loose from the bondage then it means we can realize Siva. There are different types of bonds that keeps us chained to this world and as we break those bonds one by one, we start nearing Siva. breaking free from the bonds does not mean physically cutting the ropes of bondage simply because bonds are more about the mental and the astral plane. Neither does it mean physically distancing oneself from those objects or people to whom one is attached. it simply means being right next to it but without any emotional attachments to it.
Each and everything that one detaches from, means one detaches from the pain and pleasure associated with those things. As said earlier, detachment does not mean physical detachment rather detachment at the emotional level. if you found a briefcase full of money, you would be happy. No imagine someone working at a bank as a teller, would he be attached to all the money that he handles daily? He will not be attached to it simply because he knows it is not his. Similarly, when one realizes that nothing in this world belongs to oneself, the attachment to those things starts to disappear.
Now this raises the question about love for one’s wife, kids etc., One has to understand in the right context that everything in this life needs to be done with love and compassion but with understanding that everything is of transient nature and never forgetting the ultimate that is Siva.
One must be detached mainly at the emotional level and not at the physical level. Detachment at the physical level means one is abandoning his responsibilities. This explains our responsibilities towards our families, friends, Society etc., as one’s duty all the while understanding that being emotionally detached.
Between Siva, the soul and bondage, Siva and soul are animate while bondage is inanimate. The inanimate will never go attach itself to an animate entity. Only the animated soul has attached itself due to various reasons to the inanimate that is bondage. Once the soul starts realizing this truth and starts approaching Siva, the soul’s attachment with the inanimate that is bondage, starts to wear away.
Understanding Siva, soul, and bonds
We all have heard the oft repeated phrase that the body is a temple, mostly from a bodybuilding perspective. There is a deeper meaning that the physical body is being driven by the soul. But the paradox is that the soul itself is incapable of driving anything. If the soul did indeed have the capacity to drive this body, it should have had the same even before coming into the body. The soul under the influence of ego is not capable of driving the body by itself. If the body is driven by the soul and the soul is incapable of driving the body by itself, who then drives the soul itself? We will take a simple analogy of a car, a chauffeur, and the car owner. even though the car is driven by the chauffeur, the chauffeur himself follows the instructions given by the car owner. That owner is Siva.
This analogy explains the concept of Pati, Pasu and bondage. Pati being Siva, Pasu being the soul and bonds, the external things which bind the soul. The soul is looking at the external bonds and not internally at Siva. Once the soul starts looking inwards at Siva, the external bonds start breaking away.
Now the question arises that if Siva is driving the soul, then why are people good and bad things? simply because each soul depending on its intrinsic characteristics accumulated through its karma do good and bad deeds. Let us take the analogy of different light bulbs. Even though the same electric current passes through the light bulbs, depending on their intrinsic characteristics, they each emit a different color. Similarly, Siva when infuses the soul with Sakthi, the soul does different actions depending on its intrinsic karma. The important thing to note is that Siva does all this without any strings attached. It is intrinsic human nature that does all the good and bad deeds.
Cycle of birth and temperament
When two different seeds are planted in the same ground and watered with the same rain, they grow up to be different trees. Similarly, Siva’s Grace and action is common for all, but the growth is depending on each individual soul’s desires and wants. Simply put, the cycle of birth continues as long as the soul has wants and desires. Hence there is no need to ask someone if one has rebirth or not including astrologers. When one stands as a stoic without any desire or hatred, then one can conclude that one is free from the cycle of birth.
Imagine if another child ate the chocolate that you lovingly bought for your own child, what would your feeling be ? for most of us it would be a feeling of anger because we distinguish between the two children as our child and another one’s child. Once we can get over this distinction and be stoic with the fact that other child has eaten the chocolate, then one can safely assume that one is on the path to Siva. This is just a specific example and can be generalized to almost everything in life. This temperament is something that one gains when one reads, listens, and performs actions related to Siva.
Temple worship and temperament
The temperament is akin to the fire that resides intrinsically in the firewood or the sound that resides in the bamboo. As one gains more temperament, The Siva within manifests and burns away the firewood.
Do souls in different levels of temperament go to temples? Yes. Even though certain souls are enlightened, they go to the temples to prevent themselves being pulled back into the vortex that is this world. It is like a vaccination against the bonds of this life. They realize this and hence go to the temples to vaccinate themselves since even they must live through the allocated time in this physical body. When enlightened souls themselves go to temples, we find extraordinary excuses to not go. Souls in all levels of temperament must go to temples and offer their obeisance in different variations. Those in Sariyai pray to the image of Siva. Those in Kriyai pray to the mantra aspect of Siva. Those in Yogam pray to the Siva that is within and those in Gnanam pray to Siva who is everywhere.
Mother and Siva
Such is the unfathomable depth of His compassion.
Just as a mother takes care of the toilet of her child until the child matures and can do it on his/her own, Siva takes care of the soul until the soul matures. While the mother does it only for her child, Siva removes the three impurities for all the souls over countless number of births. Even mother’s milk dries up after a few months, but Siva’s compassion is ever present. The mother while feeding, thinks of what her child will do for her when he/she grows up. But Siva does it purely out of compassion. The 63 nayanmars and many others have sung with utmost devotion and gained Siva’s compassion. But does that mean that His compassion has dried up? No. His compassion is ever present and omnipresent as He is. If it was finite, then no one other than the select few would have gained His holy feet.