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the form of darkness. The fourth is twofold deeds (Vinai). The fifth and sixth are the two kinds of Mayai, the pure and impure the substratum and material of the phenomenal universe.”2
In the following work which comprises nine of my Tamil lectures delivered at different places and on different occasions. I have given to the best of my ability a clear and rational exposition of the views of the Saiva Siddhanta relating to the six entities enumerated above. For the guidance of English - knowing readers I will give here a succinct explanation of the six categories.
Saivism is strictly a monotheistic religion holding that only as God which is truth, intelligence, and bliss, which is above births and deaths, which is all love and grace towards all individual souls, which is distinct from both matter and finite selves and yet dwells within them and without and is ever active in bringing the souls out of darkness and setting them in its light and beatitude. It calls God by the name of Sivam, simply because this term specifies the essential quality of God which is pure love, pure bliss. In later times many more gods such as Subramanya, Ganesa, Veerabhadra and others were adopted into its fold but none of the founders of the Saiva religion held any one as God except Siva. In the ten collections of the sacred hymns or Thirumurai sung by St. Thirujnanasambandha, St, Appar, St. Sundarar, St. Manickavachakar and others, there is not a singly hymn sung in praise of any god other than Siva. And in each and every temple of Siva his only true emblem the Sivalinga is set up in central shrine as the pre-eminent object of first worship, while the images of all other gods are quartered around the central sanctuary and offered only subordinate places and ordinary worship. Thus you find that not only do the ancient sacred literature of Saivism but the very construction of its temples and the pre-eminent form of worship daily offered in them to Siva also bear indisputable testimony to the monotheistic character of the Saiva religion.
According to Saivism God is as remote and transcendent as he is near and personal. Though his natural is one, it appears
