Exposition of Saiva Siddhanta

SAIVA SIDDHANTA: H.W. Schomerus; Translated from German to English by Mary Law; Edited by Humphrey Palmer; Motilal Banarasidas Publishers, 120, Royapettah High Road, Mylapore, Chennai-600004. Rs. 595.

A SPLENDID presentation of Saiva Siddhanta is made in this book by a German missionary of Evangelical Lutheran Church who came to South India in 1902. He had extracted as it were the essential features of the religion and philosophy contained in 14 canonical works of Saiva Siddhanta. He published this book in 1912 on returing to Germany specially for the benefit of European scholars and the Christian missions there for an update of Indian thought, particularly Saivism. The book is remarkable for its comprehensiveness and scholarly exposition.

In the first chapter the author starts with the most important metaphysical dispute between the various Indian schools.

Saiva Siddhanta holds that God, souls and world are eternal, beginningless and endless. The material cause of the world distinct from God and eternal is called Maya.

The second chapter deals with ``The first substance'' namely God. In the canonical works, statements from the Vedas and the Agamas are quoted as proof that God, the Supreme Being, does exist, reinforced by experience, by what is evident to us from the existence of the universe and the happenings in it. Sakti of Siva is considered as the instrumental cause of the world.

An intelligent nature different from Maya which is non- rational matter and souls which need bodies and organs - the products of Maya should be present to bring forth the world out of Maya and allow it to revert thereto. This intelligent being is God, called Siva, who serves as Karma's warder and executor. Siva is Sat meaning existence and true reality in a special sense, does not include souls.

He is also Cit existing as intelligence and knowledge, both not depending on anything else. God is by nature Ananda i.e. bliss, his blessedness not dependent on anything and as the basis for the blessedness of the souls.

Thus, Siva is Sat-cit-ananda; Saiva Siddhanta rejects Sankara's differentiation between a lower Brahman with attributes and a higher Brahman without attributes holding that the transcendent and immanent are two necessary sides of one Godhead. Siva is possessed of eight gunas (attributes or features) which include complete independence, total purity, almightiness. Siva is recognisable through Sivajnana (Patijnana) and not by Pasajnana i.e. through the natural sense organs.

In the third chapter ``The third Substance, matter'' the author deals with matter very thoroughly as it keeps souls in bondage by subjecting it to three kinds of Mala and in the absence of which, God may not have any function. Saiva Siddhanta holds Pasa or Mala to exist in three distinct entities, Anavamala, Karmamala and Mayamala. In chapter four, the nature of soul is considered.

Chapter five, ``Matter in charge'', explains the progress of the soul's destiny through the first two phases, the course of transmigration and the stages on the way to salvation.

Chapter six describes how the soul is saved from matter.

Chapter seven explains how the release attained by the soul through several stages aided by the Supreme Being is perfected by union with Siva and Jeevanmukti - attaining release during earthly life.

The soul's release from bondage by Sakti completes the process of release but intermediate before the bliss to which Siva wishes to lead the souls. Sakti withdraws and the faculties of the soul are now directed to Siva as the object. The soul's union with Siva does not make it disappear. But mingling with each other Siva and soul are strangers no longer. This is the assertion of Siddhanta by claiming Advaita relation as opposed to the identity theory of Vedanta.

In the eighth and concluding chapter, the author summarises his perception of Saiva Siddhanta and its teachings. Saiva Siddhanta, he concludes, is a natural philosophy transposing all religious categories into metaphysical relationships.

Its notion that the soul's faculties have no norms of their own will hinder the system from playing an independent role as a religion, while the basic plurality of substances imposes a like limitation on its philosophy. Yet, Saiva Siddhanta deserves attention, for, it has all the potential of influencing the religious and philosophical future of India.

The book is a great treasure worthy to be possessed not only by Saiva Siddhanta followers but by all who value such mighty inputs to the mosaic of Hindu religion and philosophy.

K. A. MANAVALAN

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