Tirumantiram - FOUNTAINHEAD OF SAIVA SIDDHANTA (Part 3 of 3)

FOUNTAINHEAD OF SAIVA SIDDHANTA (Part 3 of 3)

 

TANTRA TWO VERSE 446

 

We must understand the difference between the Self-God, Parasivam, and the soul. Many people think that the Self is something that you get. You pursue it and after a while you get it, like you get something in the world. But the Self is not separated from you by even the tiniest amount. You cannot go someplace and get it and bring it back. The formless, transcendent Self is never separate from you. It is closer than your heartbeat.

 

God Siva is called the Primal Soul because He is the perfect form, the original soul who then created individual souls. The individual soul has a beginning, and it has an end, merging with God. It has form as well. All form has a beginning and an end. The Absolute Self, Parasivam, is formless, timeless, endless and beginningless.

 

All things are in the Self, and the Self is in all things. Many people think of the Self as an object to be sought. You start here and you go there, and you get the Self. You pursue it today; and if you don't get it today, you try again tomorrow. It's different than that. It comes from within you more as a becoming of your whole being than something that you pursue and get. And yet you seem to pursue it, and seem to get it. It is very difficult to explain.

 

The individual soul is different. The soul has a form. The soul is form, a very refined and subtle form, to be sure, but still a form and form obeys the laws of form. The soul has a beginning in Lord Siva and an end in union with Him. The purpose of life is to know God, your very Self. This is the end of all religions, of all religious effort.

 

This is why we say that religion is this process of lifting ourselves up, attuning our minds to the laws of life so that we become stronger and more mature beings. We become higher beings, living in the higher chakras, and we come closer and closer to God. God doesn't come closer to us. How will God come any closer? He is closer to you right now than your own thoughts. He is nearer than breathing,

closer than hands and feet.

 

I shall explain the soul in yet another way for I see a questioning look in some of your faces. Man has five bodies, each more subtle than the last. Visualize the soul of man as a light bulb and his various bodies or sheaths as colored fabrics covering the pure white light.

 

The physical body is the outermost body. Next comes the pranic body, then the physical body's subtle duplicate, the astral body. Then there is the mental or intellectual body in which one can travel instantaneously anywhere. Then comes the body of the soul, which I term the actinodic body. This is the body that evolves from birth to birth, that reincarnates into new outer sheaths and does not die when the physical body returns its elements to the earth. This body eventually evolves as the actinic body, the body of light, the Golden Body of the soul. This soul body in its final evolution is the most perfect form, the prototype of human form. Once physical births have ceased, this soul body still continues to evolve in subtle realms of existence. This effulgent, actinic body of the illumined soul, even after Nirvakalpa Samadhi, God-Realization, continues to evolve in the inner worlds until the final merger with Siva.

 

I like to say, "God, God, God." There is one God only, but man's comprehension of That is helped by consciously exploring the three aspects of the one Divine Being: the Absolute, Pure Consciousness or the Self flowing through all form, and the Creator of all that is.

 

Lord Siva is the Absolute Self, Parasivam, the timeless, formless, spaceless Reality beyond the mind, beyond all form, beyond our subtlest understanding. Parasivam can only be experienced to be known, and then it cannot be explained. Lord Siva is pure consciousness, the substratum, or Primal Substance of all that exists. He is the Energy within all existence. He is Satchidananda, or Truth, Consciousness and Bliss, the Self that flows through all form.

 

Lord Siva is the Primal Soul, Mahesvara, the Original and most perfect Being. He is the Source and the Creator, having never been created. He is the Lord of all beings. He created all souls out of Himself, and He is ever creating, preserving and destroying forms in an endless Divine Dance. When I was nine years old, I was taught that Lord Siva is God-God the Creator, God the Preserver, and God the Destroyer. To this day I know and believe that Siva is all of these, Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra. These are the final conclusions of Saivism, the Sanatana Dharma. The Upanishads state it in this way: He is the one God, the Creator. He enters into all wombs. The One Absolute Eternal Existence, Together with His inscrutable maya, Appears as the Divine Lord, and Personal GodEndowed with manifest forms. With His Divine Sakti He holds dominion Over all the worlds. At the time of the Creation And Dissolution of the Universe He alone exists. Our Lord is One without a econd. With His Divine Sakti He reigns over all the worlds. Within man He dwells, And within all other beings. He projects the universe, He maintains it, And He withdraws it into Himself. He is the Origin and the Support Of all the Gods; He is Lord to all. He sees all and knows all. Thou doth pervade the universe, Thou art consciousness itself, Thou art Creator of Time, Thou art the Primal Being.

 

Whether He manifests existence out of Himself or withdraws it entirely into His Being, existence is all of Himself, all is of Siva, the Auspicious One. Existence is indeed eternal, yet manifesting and dissolving in natural cycles of time and space. When the scriptures speak of the world or the soul as being eternal, we must understand that it is not any particular part of the world or any single soul that exists forever. Rather it is the existence of that which we call world.

 

When this world ends, worlds and worlds will continue their existence in other parts of this universe. And when a great soul merges forever into Siva, there will be other souls working their way through their karma toward moksha. Similarly, there are always pine trees on the mountain tops. They have been there for millions of years. But those are not the same trees. In this sense we can say that world and soul are eternal, and this is to me the most profound understanding of these references in scripture.

 

You must all study the great scriptures of our religion. These divine utterances of the siddhars will enliven your own inner knowing. The Tirumantiram is similar to the Tirukural in many ways. You can teach them both to the children and apply their wisdom to everyday life. You can use them for guidance in times of trouble and confusion, and they will unerringly guide you along the right path.

 

You can read them as hymns after sacred puja in your home shrine or in the temple precincts. Each verse can be used as a prayer, as a meditation, as a holy reminder of the great path that lies ahead. It is a difficult work, but don't be discouraged by that. Just understand that it could easily take a lifetime, several lifetimes, to understand all that is contained in this scripture, that it is for those deep into their personal sadhana. It was given by the saint to those who fully knew of the Vedas and the Agamas, and to understand it you too will have to become more familiar with these other scriptures, slowly obtaining a greater background.

 

In making our selections from the Tirumantiram we have chosen those verses that would be most readily understood and which, taken as a whole, would offer a good example of the contents of the entire work for those who may never receive the full edition. This has perhaps made it seem a more simple work than it really is in its fullness of over three thousand verses. We can all offer our respects to the translator for his years of effort. Dr. B. Natarajan has had given to him a mission in this life from a previous time, before birth, to present to the modern world in the English language in its pristine purity this Tirumantiram of Rishi Tirumular. He is now fulfilling that mission and has surpassed expectation in the poetic grandeur that flows from his plume. True to his name, Nataraja, Power of Tillai, forced these expressions through his mind. The deed is done.

 

Tirumantiram has been taken from the past and magically transported into the future through the Divine Dancer's own vehicle and namesake, now retired from a worthy career to devote his life to the Divine Will, to the Great Lords of our religion.

 

So, here it is. Proceed with confidence. Enjoy it. Study it. Meditate upon it. Let it become a part of your inner life, of your understanding of God, man and world. Study it. Meditate upon it. Let it become a part of your inner life, of your understanding of God, man and world.