Continued from Page 11. 

One of the oldest , well-established and still flourishing school of Saivism is the Saiva Siddhanta of Tamilnadu. It is the most popular school of Saivism. Saiva Siddhanta claims to be not just one system among other systems, but the system par excellence. It claims to be the siddhanta, the accomplished end. It bears the distinctive marks of the Tamil genius. The basic text, is Sivajnana-bhodham, of the 13th century. But the devotional utterances of the Saiva saints, like Tevaram and Tiruvachagham and also of Tirumandiram, all of the first millenium, contain most of the concepts and doctrines of the siddhanta. The basic text referred to above is so terse that the 13th century commentary by Arulnandi is what makes it readable now.

. The triple concepts of Pati, Pasu and Pasam are eternal categories of Saiva Siddhanta. Lord Siva is Pasupati, the Lord of Pasus. Pasu means a sentient being. Pati means the Lord. The Lord of the Universe is Siva. He and His manifestation, Sakti, are the father and mother of the Universe. He is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. Pasu, the literal meaning of the word being 'animal', here stands for the Soul. The third category Pasa means a bond or bonds. It stands for all the limitations and bondage of the Soul. Pasu and Pasa are beginningless. This is because of the three blemishes: Ego, Maya (the Cosmic Ignorance that confounds us) and Karma (Our aggregate of past actions and thoughts). These three blemishes are never present in the Lord, the Pati. They affect the individual soul, because it has identified itself with the senses. If the attachment to the senses is removed, the real nature of the self would be revealed. The Supreme Lord manifests Himself as the teacher of the soul. Once the bondage is removed the soul can perceive the Supreme. For this removal, the strategy is to chant the five sacred letters of Siva: Om namah-sivaya. This most sacred mantra has been elaborately commented upon by several of the scriptures, in Sanskrit as well as Tamil. By devoting all actions to the Lord, and worshipping the Sivalinga and the devotees of Siva, one removes the triple blemish. The final release is the unity of the individual soul with the supreme. Besides creation, sustenance and dissolution, the Supreme acts in two more ways. One of them is tirodhana (= concealing). By this the Lord obliterates all our vasanas, tendencies that we have accumulated over the several lives. Without this tirodhana function our karma would never get exhausted. The fifth function is anugraha, bestowing grace, which is what gives us moksha, release from all birth. All these five functions are dramatically represented in The Cosmic Dance form of Nataraja.

The siddhanta accepts, as equally valid, the Vedas as well as the Agamas. Generally, the Agamas constitute a class of sectarian scriptures dealing with the worship of a particular aspect of God and prescribing detailed courses of discipline for the worshipper and the temples where the worship takes place There are 28 Saiva agamas. These are theological treatises - considered to be divinely revealed - very elaborate and voluminous, dealing with the account of creation, layout of villages and cities, construction of residences and temples, iconographic details of various deities, modes of worship and initiation of devotees and connected rites. While these catered mainly to the ritual side, the devotional hymns of the Nayanmars kept the torch of Saivism glowing. Appar refers to all the principal tenets of the Saiva Siddhantas in his hymns. In an inscription at the Kailasanatha temple of Kanchipuram the Pallava ruler Rajasimha (700 - 728 C.E.) states that he mastered various branches of Saiva Siddhanta and thereby cleansed himself of all the blemishes. This is a direct reference to the existence of Saiva Siddhanta with a number of branches as early as the eighth century C.E.

Since time immemorial, twelve Siva temples have been revered and glorified as twelve jyotirlingas (lingas of Effulgence). They are referred to in the puranas in superlative terms in terms of spiritual merit. Naturally the tradition associated with each of these is very rich. These twelve temples are those of

Somanatha in Saurashtra

Mallikarjuna in Sri Sailam in Andhra Pradesh, which is also famous as the place where Adi Sankara composed a famous devotional poem in 100 stanzas in praise of the Lord there;

Mahakalesvara in Ujjain;

Amareswara in an island called Omkara on the river Narmada;

Kedareswara, in the snow-clad Himalayas;

Bhimasankara in the Sahyadri Hills near Pune;

Visvesvara of Varanasi, the most important pilgrimage centre for all Hindus;

Tryambakesvara on the Godavari near Nasik;

Vaidyanatha in Deogarh in Bihar;

Nagesvara in the Daruka forest of Gujarat

Grishnesvara in Ellora

Ramalingesvara of Ramesvaram at the southernmost tip of the country, which, as a place of pilgrimage is as important as Varanasi

 

In addition, there are five major five temples the locales of which represent the five fundamental elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space. These temples are respectively,

 

Ekambaresvara in Kanchipuram;

Jambukesvara in Tiruvanaikka near Trichinopoly;

Arunachalesvara in Tiruvannamalai;

Kalahastisvara in Kalahasti; and

Nataraja in Chidambaram.

 

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 Ó Copyright. V. Krishnamurthy October 12, 2000

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