உணர் உரு அசத்தெனின்,உணராது இன்மையின்
இருதிறன் அல்லாது சிவசத்தாமென
இரண்டு வகையின் இசைக்குமன் னுலகே.
Sutra. That which is perceived by the senses is Asat (changeable.) That which is not so perceived does not exist. God is neither the one nor the other, and hence called Siva Sat or Chit Sat by the wise; Chit or Siva when not understood by the human intelligence and Sat when perceived with divine wisdom.
Commentary
This treats of the nature of Sat and Asat and consists of two arguments.
First Argument
Churnika. – Everything that is perceived by the human understanding is liable to decay.
Varthikam. – As an object exists or does not exist according to one or other attitude of the soul, it is established that the object perceived by the human understanding is Asat.
Illustration. – Hear, O! thou who art ignorant of the real nature of Asat. All those that are perceived by the human faculties and senses will be found to be Asat by him who has understood Sat. O! Thou, who art not Asat. If similes are required to illustrate that the world is Asat, they are the figures formed on the water, the dreams and the cloud-car. They disappear before Him, as does darkness before the sun.
Second Argument
Churnika. – The Being so arrived at (that is not perceived by the soul) is Hara.
Varthikam. – All objects understood by us do not require a light to know them by, and all not so understood cannot be known even with a light. Hence that which is not included in these two and which is beyond the ken of human powers and is within its ken also, that is Sivam which is Sat.
Illustration. –
(a) If the meaning of the expression that God is neither what can be proved and known by us nor what cannot be known is asked, he who has found the truth will say that He exists. He cannot be seen by the human understanding as He will then become Asat. He must be seen by the Arul Sakti of Siva who cannot be known by man. This Arul Sakti is His Foot.
(b). The faculties by which the soul perceives are Asat. Therefore, none of them can perceive the One. Even thou, who so perceives, cannot understand Him. If examined, what thou perceivest will be different from thee. He who has understood himself will perceive himself to be not different from Him, as he merges his personality in Him and understands through His Arul.
(c). If God is capable of being meditated by man, He becomes Asat. If He is regarded as a Being beyond human meditation, He will be a mere fiction. If He is meditated as neither, He will be a nonentity. If He is meditated as an object of meditation though He is beyond human meditation, this will be also a fiction. The Param can only be meditated with the aid of His Arul. Therefore, He is not a nonentity.
(d). To be known by the soul, He is not different from itself. As He is even present in its understanding it cannot know Him. As He in fact makes the soul see, its understanding cannot comprehend and point Him out to the soul, just as the eye which the soul enables it to see and yet is one with it cannot see the soul.
(e). God is not one who can be pointed out as “That.” If so, not only will He be an object of knowledge, it will imply a Gnatha who understands Him as such. He is not different from the soul as an object of knowledge. He becomes one with the soul pervading its understanding altogether. The soul so feeling itself is also Sivam.
NOTES.
This sutra contains the true and only definition of God, and all other attributes of God follow from the two given here. The way in which these attributes are derived is thus. In the first place, God must either be an object of human knowledge of He is not. If the first, everything that is perceived by us is liable to decay and change and we cannot regard God as liable to change. Therefore, God is beyond human perception and hence called Sivam or Chit (Pure Intelligence). If it is not an object of knowledge, is it nonentity? Of course not, and hence He is ‘Sat’ ‘that which subsists’ ‘The only Truth.’ These two forms the components of the word ‘Satchithanantham,’ so freely applied to God in the Saivite and Vedantic lore. This is our only definition of God and it is seen that any definition of God must contain these elements and the conception of God could not be simplified in any degree. Stated thus, very few religionists would quarrel with our definition of God. And yet how very few of the religions of the world even those, which charges others as polytheistic and idolatrous have an ideal of God which conforms to this definition. Their traditions, beliefs and methods of worship destroy this true idea for instance if our definition of God, that He is inconceivable by the human intelligence and imperceptible to human powers, is true how are all those religions which believe in Avatars, Christianity and Vaishnavism included, reconcilable with our definition. When God is born in the flesh, is He not a tangible thing, a thing to be seen by our eye, felt by our touch and comprehended by our senses. How can we then call Him indescribable and imperceptible? How can the Author of evolution subject himself to the laws of evolution – birth and death. Is it not therefore that our sages one and all declare that – He is ‘உதியா மரியா’ ‘இறப்பிலி பிறப்பிலி’ (without birth and death)? We challenge any body to point out in the vast puranic lore, any story in which Siva is said to have been born in the flesh and the very stories which exist, only serve to illustrate the difference between Him and the so-called Immortals, namely, that Siva cannot die and be born, and that all others are capable of births and deaths, and our poet says:
“எல்லார் பிறப்பும் இறப்பும் இயற்பாவலர்தம்,
சொல்லாற் றெளிந்தேம், – நம் சோணேசர்,
இல்லிற் பிறந்த கதையும் கேளேம் பேருலகில் வாழ்ந்துண்டு,
இறந்த கதையும் கேட்டிலேம்.”
And every Tamil student can recall to mind the popular Stanza of Kalamegam in which he claims superiority to Vishnu who is superior to God, as Siva has no births, Vishnu’s births are ten and his own are innumerable. The Churnika points out that all object and subject (mental) phenomena are liable to decay, not annihilation, but change. They so change from moment to moment, they are so evanescent that they may almost be said to have no existence at all, ‘இல்லே யெனு மாயை’ and these are therefore called Asat. And to avoid further misconception, it is defined as that which exists or does not exist according to the objective or subjective attitude of the mind, bearing in mind, however, Asat here includes all the phenomena of object and subject, both being objective to the soul. Asat or Maya therefore does not mean nonexistent nor illusion nor Mitya. It simply means ‘other than Sat.’ And this definition has to be borne in mind fully, as the confusion of its meaning alone has given birth to the tortuosities of the Idealistic School. The latter School compares Asat to the imagined silver in the shell and the snake in a rope. That this is a false analogy, without any meaning, is easily shown. For the production of this illusory knowledge we must have previously possessed a knowledge of two realities both the shell and silver, and the snake and the rope and an imperfectly intelligent being, who by either defective vision or distance or fear &c. mistakes one thing for the other. The silver and snake, in themselves realities, are not in the shell and rope respectively but in a defective mind. In the genesis of the Asat, what supplies the places of silver, shell and defective mind must be shown. So far as the illusory knowledge of silver is concerned, we have traced it to a defective mind. If myself and my human consciousness, objective and subjective is an illusion, who is the subject of this illusion. Inevitably, God. Such a God is itself illusory and He could not be self-luminous and Intelligent. The analogy gives us no sense whatever and though the objection as stated here has often and often been pressed, yet we find no book meeting it and we find the analogy repeated often enough and even by intelligent men, parrot-like. The nature of Asat is further explained in the illustration, and the similes given are in themselves real experiences while they last, and the point of comparison is simply their evanescent and temporary character.
2. The second Varthika gives one of the many dilemmas found in this work. If God is knowable by us, it will be easy enough to know Him and we do not require a superior Light to guide us to Him. If He is not knowable, then however we might try, we cannot discover Him, and the worship of God will be all vain trouble. The meaning being that it is not possible to know with what is called Pasa and Pasu Gnanam i.e., by the human powers and by the soul itself. The Divine Light (Pathi Gnanam) must penetrate our soul and then we can discover Him dwelling in ourselves; and merging our personalities in Him, we become indistinguishable from Him and we can as it were, call ourselves even God, in name. At no time, can we therefore see God face to face as He, as it were, lies behind us, lives in us, part of our very being. Sivagnana Siddhi summarises the reasons thus:
“God cannot be perceived by the Human intelligence as He is not separate from the soul, as He illumines its intelligence, makes it understand whatever it thinks about, and as He has no such pride as I and mine, everything being in Him.”
(b) and (d) and (e). Maya is object. Soul is subject. The object cannot perceive the subject; otherwise, the subject will become the object and the object subject. God is true subject, and Maya and Soul are objects and hence Maya and Soul cannot perceive God. The subject receives further elaboration in the next Sutra.
(c) This verse discusses the various conceptions of God by the Yogis, and they are reduced to either mere idols of the human mind or fiction or nonentity, in all of which cases, the meditation of God will bring no profit whatever. When the highest conceptions of God in the Yoga philosophy are thus declared to be mere material idols or myths, it need not be pointed out that any representation of the Unknown and the Inconceivable by either the eye or the ear or any other human senses will be equally material conceptions and fruitless. This then is our real reason for the objection taken to all forms of idolatry. The religions ordinarily professing hatred of idolatry are based on such narrow philosophic foundations that they simply object to the idols of the eye – namely pictures and statues, &c., but their ordinary conceptions of God conveyed by the language and sound is equally gross and idolatrous. If you object to a male representation of God in gold or marble as your Father and ‘Our Lord’ and repeat other names which are mere idols of the ear, and what benefit would it bring you the worship of these mere names? If you object to locate the picture of the eye in a temple, why do you build Him a temple in words and in your mind and say ‘Our Father which art in Heaven.’ This heaven of your mind is as unreal a representation of God’s abode as the Temple of the earth. A prayer is a mere word or sound worship, and all our mantras fall within this category. God can only be and is therefore represented by means of all the human senses, and the mental conceptions simply follow from the sensory conceptions. Of all these, however, the eye and the ear standing foremost among the most intellectual of the five gateways of knowledge, the symbolic forms of these two senses are deservedly most popular. And of these, the forms of the eye are all the varied forms of the universe, the five elements, the Sun, and the Moon, and the luminaries and all animal form chiefly man, comprised under what are called Ashta-Mukurtham; which forms are again divided into Guru, Lingam and Sangamam: Guru and Sangama comprising Living Beings and Lingam including all pictorial and sculptural representations, from the root ‘lik,’ meaning to write or describe. Cf. The word ‘Lipika,’ used in the ‘Secret Doctrine.’ The symbols presented to the ear, are sounds, words, names, and mantras, prayers, &c. And of all these the Pranava and Sri Panchakshara stand foremost. And these mantras form what is called Sabda Brahm. And how futile this worship of Sabda Brahm is when not accompanied by Pathi Gnanam is illustrated by the Puranic story of the Rishis of the Tharukavana. Cf. the following extract from ‘Barths’ Religions of India. “Sacrifice is only an act of preparation; it is the best of acts but it is an act and its fruits consequently perishable. Accordingly, although whole sections of these treatises (Upanishads) are taken up exclusively with speculations on the rites, what they teach may be summed up in the words of Munduka Upanishad “Know the Atman only and away with everything else; it alone is the bridge to immortality.” The Veda itself and the whole circle of sacred science are quite as sweepingly consigned to the second place. The Veda is not the true Brahm; it is only its reflection. And the science of this imperfect Brahm, this Sabda Brahm or Brahm in words is only a science of a lower order. The true science is that which has the true Brahm, The Para Brahman for its subject.” That is, the Vedas themselves resolve into Asat and they cannot know Sat. These thoughts are not only found in almost every page of our sacred literature, but they can be met with even in every popular song, and story. If I attempt here any quotation, these will in themselves form matter for a separate book, but I am unwilling to leave it without a few, seeing the importance of the subject. Turning over the first few pages of ‘Thiruvachakam’ we meet with these:
“பரமன் காண்க“
(Behold the Supreme)
“சொற்பதங் கடந்த தொல்லோன் காண்க“
(Behold The most Ancient God who cannot be described by words)
“சித்தமுஞ்செல்லா சேடசியன் காண்க“
(Behold the Incomprehensible Being who cannot be reached by the Human mind)
“தேவரு மறியாச் சிவனே காண்க“
(Behold the Lord unknown to the Immortals)
“சொற்பதங் கடந்த தொல் லோன்
உள்ளத்துணர்ச்சியிற் கொள்ளவும் படான்
கண்முதற்புலனாற் காட்சியுமில்லோன்“
‘He is passing the description of words, not comprehensible by the mind, not visible to the eye and other senses’ (note here the words ‘eye and other senses’)
“யுரையுணர் விறந்த வொருவ போற்றி.”
(Praise be to the One who is passing speech and thought)
“வேதங்கள் ஐயா வெனவோங்கி
ஆழ்ந்தகன்ற நுண்ணியனே.”
(Thou hast passed far beyond the reach of the Vedas, which called loudly for Thee)
“ஓர்நாமம் ஓருருவம் ஒன்றுமில்லான்“
He has no name, and no form and no marks whatever.
“சோதிமணிமுடி சொல்லிற் சொல்லிறந்து நின்றதொன்மை
ஆதிகுணம் ஒன்றுமில்லா அந்தமிலான்.”
(His Lustrous Crown is where all speech and thought cease to enter,
He has no beginning, no attributes and no end.)
Turn to the ‘Thevaram’ :
“அவன் அருளே கண்ணாகிக் காண்பதல்லால்.
இப்படியன் இவ்வுருவன், இவ்வண்ணத்தன்
இவனிறைவ னென்றெழுதிக் காட்டொணாதே.”
(Unless you can see him with His Grace as your eye,
You cannot describe Him in words or picture, as this is the God possessing such and such attributes, forms and qualities).
Says our Sainted Poetess Karaikal Ammayar:
“அன்றும் திருவுருவம் காணாதே யாட்பட்டேன்
இன்றும் திருவுருவம் காண்கிலேன் – என்றுந்தான்
எவ்வுருவோ நும்பிரான் என்பார்கட் கென்னுரைப்பேன்,
எவ்வுருவோ நின்னுருவம் எது.”
When I first became Thy slave, I did not know Thy form,
I have not seen Thy form even now.
What am I to say to those who ask me what Thy form is?
What is Thy form? Which is it? None.
Our Thayumanavar:
“உரையுணர்வு இறந்து தம்மையுணர்பவர் உணர்வி னூடே
கரையிலா இன்பவெள்ளம் காட்டிடும் முகிலே.”
“சொல்லாலும் பொருளாலும் அளவையாலும்
தொடரவொண்ணா அருள்நெறி.”
“குலமிலான் குணங்குறி யிலான்.”
“சுருதியே சிவாகமங்களே யுங்களாற் சொல்லும்
ஒருதனிப்பொருள் அளவையீனென்னவா யுண்டோ
பொருதிரைக்கடலெண்ணினும் புகல
கருதவெட்டிடா நிறைபொருள் அளவையார் காண்பார்“
Cf. with verse (d).
“அறியுந்தரமோ நானுன்னை, அறிவுக்கறிவாய் நிற்பதனால்
பிறியுந் தரமோ நீ யென்னைப் பெம்மானே – பேரின்பமதாய்
செறியும் பொருள் நீ நின்னையன்றிச் செறியாப் பொருள் நான்.”
Having said so much, it might reasonably be asked, how is it, that the Saiva Religion whose Temples are more numerous than that of any other faith and are spread out from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin and the Islands beyond and from the caves of Elephanta to the Rock cut Temples of Mahabalipuram, tolerates these practices? This is the subject of the next chapter on Sadana and the reason is found there. This symbolic worship (sensory and mental) is required as Sadana for the human soul and these are not Sadhia i.e., the means to attain an end, the knowledge of Sat, and not the end itself; or in the words of the extract quoted above, these are acts of preparation. The human mind, if it must progress in Spirituality, must withdraw more and more from its own self and rest itself on what it considers, the Highest, the Holiest and Loveliest and bestow upon it all its deeds, riches, and thoughts (). By such continued practice of Altruism and love of Sivam, who is All Love, will reach true Bhakti or Pathi Gnanam, described in the last chapter on Payan. Besides when we must worship God, we must worship in that body in which He is present, and we have before shown that the whole universe, animate and in animate, forms His body; and that all forms of nature are His. And our sages praise Him therefore:
“பெண் ஆண் அலியென்னும் பெற்றியன் போற்றி.”
(Praise be to the One who is male, female, and neuter.)
“பூதங்கள்தோறு நின்றா யெனின் அல்லாற்
போக்கிலன் வரவிலன் என நினைப்புலவோர்,
கீதங்கள் பாடுதல் ஆடுதலல்லாற்
கேட்டறியோமுனைக் கண்டறிவாரை
சிந்தனைக்கும் அரியாய்.”
(The sages can only sing Thy praises as the One immanent in all Nature, and withal as being the immutable and unchangeable; we have not heard of any persons who have seen Thee except in this way. Thou art beyond the reach of all thought.)
“கண்ணாலியானும் கண்டேன் காண்க.”
(I have seen Thee with my eyes.)
’இன்னிசை வினையிலி சைந்தோன் காண்க.’
(Thou art present even as the Harmony in the Vina.)
“பூவினாற்றம் போன்றுயர்ந் தெங்கு மொழிவற நிறைந்து மேவிய பெருமை.”
(Thy greatness in being present in one and all, like the smell in the folwer.)
“அருக்கனிற் சோதி அமைத்தோன் திருத்தகு
மதியிற்றண்மை வைத்தோன் திண்டிறல்
தீயின் வெம்மை செய்தோன் பொய்தீர்
வானிற்கலப்பு வைத்தோன், மேதகு
நீரி லின்சுவை நிகழ்ந்தோன், வெளிப்பட
மண்ணிற் றிண்மைவைத்தோன், என்னென்று
எனைப் பலகோடியெனைப் பல பிறவும்
அனைத்தனைத் தவவயின் அடைத்தோன் அஃதான்று“
(Thou art present as the Light in the sun.
Thou art present as the coolness in the moon.
Thou hast added Heat to the fire.
Thou art present even as Akas diffusing everywhere.
Thou art present even as the sweetness in water.
Thou art present even as the hardness in earth.
Thou art present in each and everything as such.
And yet art Thou not all these things.)
“பத்திவலையிற் படுவோன் காண்க.”
(Thou art ensnared by Bhakti (Love).)
அருவமும் உருவமு மானாய் போற்றி.
பேராயிரமுடைய பெம்மான் போற்றி.
(Praise be to Thee who hast forms and art formless.)
(Praise be to Thee who hast thousand names.)
“கண்ணிற் காண்பதுன் காட்சி கையாற்றொழில்
பண்ணல்பூசை பகர்வது மந்திரம்.
மண்ணோ டைந்தும் வழங்குயிர் யாவுமே
யண்ணலே நின்னருள் வடிவாகும்மே.”
Real seeing with our eyes is when we see Thee.
Real Pujah with our hands is when we worship Thee.
When we repeat Thy names, it is uttering manthra.
All the five elements and animate nature are Thy Gracious Forms
“வடிவெல்லாநின் வடிவென வாழ்த்திடாக்
கடியனேனுமுன் காரணம் காண்பனோ.”
(Can I hope to see Thy Truth
When I do not praise all Forms as Thy Form)
“அருவெனில் உருவமுமுளை உருவெனில்
அருஉருவமு முளையவை யுபயமு மலை.”
(If it is said, Thou art Formless, no, Thou hast also a Form. If it is said, Thou hast only a form, no, Thou art also formless. Thou art neither.)
And again when we picture in words or in our minds, God, say as the Creator, the protector and the destroyer, why should we not also picture Him to our eye as such? It is not that, when we speak of in words, God as creator &c., or think of Him as such, we have really advanced in any way in our knowledge of God. And it is, on this principle that the whole of the innumerable forms in Temple worship has grown among the Hindus. Each form and every detail in that form is symbolic of some idea or thought. These forms are such that if today all our philosophical works and Shastras, &c., are destroyed, it is possible to evolve, all our various Hindu Philosophical systems, Moral, Social and Religious from these images alone, provided we possess the key. This is not an idle boast, but it is wanting of space and fear of encumbering the subject with too much of my own views that forbid me to elaborate the subject further. However, I will conclude this article by referring to and explaining in part the most important of the Saivite Forms, namely the image of Natesa and the Chin Mudra. It will be too great a detail if I proceed to describe the structure of the place or Temple called Chit Ambaram or Chit Akas, Chit Sabha and Pundarikapuram or the city of the Heart in the midst of which the Divine Dancer performs His Natak. The pose is that of a dancer. And now dance is defined as the music of motion. And when, as we have shown, God manifests Himself as the great Energy or Force or Maha Chaitanyam, when He wills that the whole universe of Mind and Matter should undergo Evolution (creation, development and Reproduction). What could be more appropriate than to regard this Grand Moving Force as a great Dancer. In the words of our sage –
‘காட்ட வனல் போல் உடல் கலந்துயிரையெல்லாம்,
ஆட்டுவிக்கும் நட்டுவன் எம்மண்ணலென வெண்ணாய்.’
(Our God is the Dancer who like the heat latent in the firewood diffuses His Power in Mind and Matter and Makes them dance in their turn.) I prefer again to quote the famous author of ‘Nithineri Vilakkam’ in order to explain a few of the other Symbols.
‘பூமலி கற்பகப் பூத்தேள் வைப்பு
நாமநீர் வரைப்பின் நானில வளாகமும்
எனைய புவனமும் எண்ணீங்குயிரும்
தானே வகுத்ததுன் தமருகக் கரமே
தனித்தனி வகுத்த சராசரப்பகுதி
யனைத்தையும் காப்பதுன் அமைத்த கைத்தலமே
தோற்றுபு நின்ற அத் தொல்லுலகடங்கலும்
ஆற்றுவது ஆரழல் அமைத்ததோர் கரமே
ஈட்டிய வினைப்பயன் எவற்றையும் மறைத்துநின்
றூட்டுவ தாகும்நின் ஊன்றியபதமே;
அடுத்த இன்னுயிர்கட்கு அளவில் பேரின்பம்
கொடுப்பது முதல்வநின் குஞ்சித பதமே
இத்தொழில் ஐந்தும்நின் மெய்த்தொழில்.’
Roughly translated, the passage means ‘O my Lord, Thy Hand holding the sacred drum (Damaruka – உடுக்கை) has made and arranged the Heavens and the Earth and other worlds and innumerable souls. Thy raised Hand protects the Chethana and Achethana Prapancha which Thou hadst created. All these worlds are changed by Thy Hand bearing Fire. Thy Sacred Foot, planted on the ground, furnishes rest to the tired soul struggling in the toils of Karma and eating the fruits thereof. It is Thy lifted Foot which grants eternal bliss to those who approach Thee. These Pancha Krithya are in fact Thy true Handy-work.
The curious may enquire how the hand with the drum signifies creation or creative Power. Those who have read Mrs. Annie Beasant’s Lecture on Sound will have noted that when creation is started Sound or Natham is the first product, out of which all other tatwas are evolved, and the Damarukam is probably the oldest and most primitive sound producing instruments known to the Aryans and which, the use of it still in all religious observances also points to.
The Chin Mudra found in the Person of the Divine Guru Dakshina Murthi explains the nature of the three padarthas and the difference of the Bandu and Moksha conditions. For a fuller account of this symbol, see the pages of ‘The Theosophist.’