* சைவ சித்தாந்த ஞான போதம்
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to be twofold to the finite conception of the individual minds, just as the sun which appears to our naked eyes like a small bright disc, is in reality, immense in its size and thus seems to present two aspects to our perception and conception. As has been so well pointed out bt Prof. James in the lecture on Philosophy in his epochmaking work: "The varieties of Religious Experience." "that the transcendentalist reasonings fail to make religion universal," this incomprehensible and inconceivable aspect of God can never appeal to a devout mind that is thirsting after to obtain atleast a glimpse of his presence and personality. In so far as God is will, intelligence and freedom, he cannot be an unfeeling, unintelligent and impersonal existence. Nowhere is the personal aspect of God which is in vital relation with all living beings is so strongly emphasized as is Saivism. Since he is in and near every vital being and is helping them all to develop their faculties of thought and feeling, life is held in it so sacred that taking it away from a man or a beast is looked upon by it as an unpardonable and sacrilegious crime. Hence the very word Saivism has come to be applied to a vegetarian mode of living also.
Now, it is this hankering of the human mind after the living personal relation of God to itself that has prompted it to feel deeply the need of setting up a physical image before its outer eyes as a means of setting up a corresponding mental image before its inner eyes. For all our knowledge of anything consists in bringing into our mind a mental image corresponding to that particular physical thing and storing it up permanently in our memory for after use. Blot that image out of your mind or forget it altoghether and you thereby lose the knowledge of it also once for all. In fact, a man of vast knowledge is distinguished from another man of small knowledge only by his power of forming in his mind as well as of fixing on his memory myriads of distinct mental images corresponding exactly to the forms of physical objects which he was observing attentively and nothing carefully. This psychological law pertaining to the formation and development of the human mind must disclose to us the necessity of keeping before our eyes an image made of clay or
