KUNANGKAL (குணங்கள்)
I. Functions of the Attuma-Tattuvam.
1. Of the Elements :
- piruthuvi, earth, envelopes and strengthens the parts
- appu, water, cools and expands
- teyu, fire, warms and gives unity (to the whole organism)
- vayu, air, gives sound and rotundity (to the parts)
- akasam, ether, gives space.
Note : According to this philosophy, ether is universally diffused. It not only forms space, but is the essential medium through which bodies, separated from one another, may mutually operate.
2. Of the Perceptive Organs :
- sottiram, ears, perceive sound
- tokku, skin, understands touch
- sadchu, eyes, perceive form
- singnguvei, tongue, discriminates flavour
- akkiranam, nose, has the knowledge of odor.
Note : These, as before stated, are not the external organs, which are composed of skin, muscle, etc., ; but those finer portions of the organs of sense, to which these functions more properly belong. They may exist independent of the external body. Hence they are sometimes called the Organs of Intelligence, Puttiyintiriyam.
3. Of the Organs of Action:
- vakku, mouth, enunciates
- patham, feet, produce loco-motion
- pani, hands, give and receive
- payuru, excretory organs, separate and emit the excretions
- upattam, genital organs, give pleasure.
4. Of the Intellectual Organic Faculties:
- manam, the understanding, apprehends
- putti, the judgement, decides, judges, purposes
- akangkaram, the individuality holds as one’s own, individualizes, prompts to action
- sittam, the will, thinks clearly, wills.
Note : These are mere organs, through which the soul is enabled to exercise the functions named, and without which it has no such powers. They are properly intellectual senses.
II. Functions of the Vittiya Tattuvam.
1. Kalam, time, is distinguished into
chel-kalam (செல் காலம்) past time
nikal-kalam (நிகழ் காலம்) present time
ethir-kalam (எதிர் காலம்), future time
Note : The use of terms here, as elsewhere, is some what peculiar to the system. Each of the times named above, has a further three-fold distinction, having reference to the existence of the soul.
(i) chel-kalam, past time, refers, first, when considered in reference to the general universe, to the primordial state of the soul. But when considered in reference to the soul after its first development, it refers to its existence ‘in the loins of its father,’ before any given birth.
Secondly, when reference is had to the order of development, chel-kalam refers to the time, or stage, in which the soul passes from the Siva-Tattuvam to the progress through births, chel-kalam refers to the point of time when the soul passes from the father to the mother.
Thirdly, when in the order of the general development, chel-kalam is the time of the soul’s passage from the Vittiya-Tattuvam to the Attuma-Tattuvam. In the subordinate case, it is the time of the soul’s birth into the world.
(ii) Nikal-kalam, present time, is the period of the soul’s continuance in either of the three stages, i.e., either in chel-kalam, in nikal-kalam or in ethir-kalam.
(iii) Ethir-kalam, future time, is the time of the soul’s continuance in either of the three states included in chel-kalam as defined in No.(1).
Hence, writers often speak of nine kalam. Again, as all the nine are essentially involved in each of the three grand distinctions, they also make mention of twenty-seven kalam.
2. Niyathi, fate, makes kanmam sure, and secures to the soul all the fruits of one’s own doings, and of his anava-malam, primordial depravity.
3. Kalei, continency, gradually lessens and removes anava-malam.
Note : This is the power by which the senses are subdued, and eternal self is brought into subjection.
4. Vittei, thought, wakes up understanding, and leads to wisdom.
5. Rakam, desire or concupiscence lessens the good obtained, and produces desire, for what is not had (or for what is unlawful).
6. Purushan, life, establishes, or supports, the whole system in its operations.
7. Mayei, delusion, concentrates in itself the Three Kunam, viz : sattuvikam, rasatham and ramatham.
Note : This is substantially the mula – pirakiruthi, mentioned under the head of Development of the Tattuvam (Sec. III). It lays the foundation for the operation of the Three Kunam, according as they are developed, in the various classes of organised beings. As an organ in the human microcosm, it is the form, or instrumentality, through which satti performs one part of her office-work in the miniature world, or universe – that part in which she leads the soul on in a course of human action and experience.
III. Functions of the Siva-Tattuvam
- Sivam, or Natham, is the form of Siva – Gnanam, the Wisdom of Sivan, and is that which leads the soul to Sivan.
- Satti, or Vintu, is the form of action, the organised medium through which the soul is led into the state of grace. (It forms the medium of divine illumination).
- Sathakkiyam is the form in which the two Energies of Deity are combined, and in which wisdom and action are perfectly balanced. (This is the source of grace to all souls).
- Isuram (Ichchuram, called also Mayesuram), is the development in which gnanam is lessened, and Kirikei (கிரிகை), action, predominates. (It is the source of darkness to souls).
- This form is in man, the obscuring God. He governs men in all their actions while, they are filling out the requirements of their vithi (விதி), fate. He is practically the god of providence, but governs by the laws of stern necessity.
- Sutta-Vittei, otherwise called Ruttiran, is the divine form in which kirikei, action, is less fully developed, and in which gnanam predominates. (He is the source of destruction of all organic existences).
Note : Ruttiran is called the Destroyer, because he carries on the process of reproduction in all animals and plants, or is the one who sends souls into successive bodies. This involves the destruction of the old body; hence his appellation of Destroyer. But Transformer, or Reproducer, or Regenerator, would be a more correct appellation.
This god is essentially the Mummurthi (மும்மூர்த்தி), the common Triad, of the Hindus : the three, Brahma, Vishnu, and Sivan, being an expansion of himself, by successive developments. The work of reproduction necessarily involves the function of Brahma the Generator, and vishnu, the Preserver. These developments are, however, considered as actually made, and as existing, in every man.
Hence we have the five operative gods, which are usually named according to the natural order of their operations, beginning with the lowest and last developed :
Brahma, the Generator
Vishnu, the Preserver
Sivan or Ruttiran, the Reproducer
Mayesuran, the Obscurer
and Sathasivan, the Illuminator
Their respective regions, or seats, in the human Microcosm are :
the genitalia
the navel
the heart or stomach
the neck and chest
and the forehead between the eye-brows