Chapter 1 - The ladder of love and Agamaic worship

I - Our poet’s method:

We discussed Arurar’s conception of the Universe or Nature, which is object to a subject. The subject is the spirit or soul. To start with, the souls are found to be many; they suffer from ignorance, misery of the cycle of births and deaths and are caught within the wheel of karma. The false identification with matter, under which the soul’s ‘Cit’, ‘Sat’ and ‘Ananda’ aspects are found cribbed, cabinned and confined, slowly ceases. The soul sees its true worth. It finds that the Soul of the soul is God within and without—the Sat, Cit and Ananda, the ever existing Truth, the ever pure Knowledge and Pure Bliss, All Pervasive and Infinite. The soul realizes that its separatist tendency is egoism and therefore surrenders itself to the Lord or the Soul of the soul. It is lost there and experiences the Absolute. Instead of discussing the characteristics of these souls and God separately, our poet brings out their mutual relationship and gradual blossoming of the final bliss. We, therefore, follow our poet’s method. Mystics speak like him of purgation, illumination and Bliss. As the attachment to the world becomes a force of habit and continues as such almost to the very end of Sivadarsana, purgation with consequent illumination may be looked upon as a stage in the spiritual progress.

II - The ten effects: Dasakarya of Shaivism:

The mystics are blessed with the immediate experience of God. The Shaivites speak of ten stages of spiritual or mystic experience, as Ten Effects or Dasakaryas.

The Dasakaryas, as explained in Patipacupacavilakkam, are as follows:

“Taraimutal natamirait tanittanik kantal rupam
Taraimutal natamirait tarceyal kantal katci
Taraimutal natamiraic catamayam enru kantu
Kuruparan arulal ninkal cuttiyayk kurittukkolle” (1)

“Tattuva titamtannil cakacava navama lantan
Urritum itarkuc cakki nanenal uyirkku rupam
Citturu wane enru terale tericanantan
Murrunar lean munnar mukilttita tatankal cutti” (2)

“Enkanum civanu lanen runartale iraivan rupam
Ankavan tolilen kannum aritale terica nantan
Tinkalve niyand tonral civaydkam malarma nampol
Punkane yatta luntal pokamen raraiyum nule” (3)

The first is ‘Tattva rupam’, the knowledge of the world—a kind of indirect knowledge, a vague knowledge of its existence through cognition—not as a variety which we all experience but as a unity. This is followed by ‘Tattva darsana’, the experience of the world’s inner nature where the soul realizes that its erstwhile identification with matter is but a vain delusion. Many play and die on the shore or on the surface. A few dive deep and plumb its depth and to these is vouchsafed this sight. There, man escapes from the evil clutches of the ghost or the misleading aspect of this world. Here arises the removal of the delusion of false identification with matter; here springs up the true knowledge of the real soul; here occurs the purification from the dirt of attachment and of identification with and contamination by the tattvas or matter: ‘the Tattva suddhi’. The experience here is no more on the lower level of animal sensation: it ceases to be mere physical pain and pleasure; it is no more ill balanced. The fissure in the mind cutting into two—the conscious and the unconscious begins to be cured. The basis of this Universe is found to rest elsewhere. Man turns inward. Pleasure is found not to exist outside.

‘Atma rupam’, the knowledge of the Atman, the spirit or the soul, dawns on Man. It is really an understanding of God; because God and soul are inseparable, it is called ‘Atma rupam’. Atma darsana” which follows next is the direct self-realization and experience of the soul in complete self-surrender unto God, living, moving and having its being in God. This is the positive aspect, while the subsequent stage of ‘Atma suddhi” is the negative aspect. The outward darkness may disappear but unless the blinaness of the eye also is cured there will not be any sight possible. Here comes the true dependence of the soul on God; real self-surrender springs up. Human feelings are controlled and stabilized; everything is thus humanized and deified[?]. There are no more inhibitions and exhibitions; the conscious and the unconscious are harmonized in the supra conscious. This harmony is the fruit, full of happiness. The feelings thus sublimated become the sentiments or the ‘Rasas’ of Art. But even this is not felt to be self-supporting and independent. The basis is still found to be elsewhere but within. The fissure of the mind is cured but not as yet made whole. Man is there but on the circumference and he is slowly drawn to the centre. ‘Atma suddhi’ follows, where this experience is transcended. The soul is lost in God; there is no more any sign of separatist tendency. The dirt of the separatist feeling is completely washed out. Hence the name of ‘Atma suddhi.

This spiritual progress cannot be explained except through a parable. There are two birds, it is said, on the tree of life; one feasts on the sour unripe fruits and the sweet ripe fruits of that tree; the other bird stays perched up on the top of the tree far beyond this experience of misery and happiness; the lower bird slowly flies up and becomes one with the higher bird even as the reflection becomes one with the original when the medium of reflection is destroyed or witharawn—thus is told in the Upanisads the story of the soul attaining its perfection in God or Brahman.

Here are distinguished three further stages: ‘Shiva rupam’ is the universal vision. The Guru or Master initiating the soul into the mysteries of mystic experience is looked upon as the loving God Himself and the soul sees God in everything and everywhere. The distinction between these two outlooks, the outlook on the Master and the outlook on the world, is this. God incarnates Himself in the spirit of the Master whilst He exists everywhere as the basis of everything because of His omnipresence in this universal vision. Then follows ‘Shiva darsana’ which is the direct experience of God. The feet of God are realized when the soul is lost in Him and does not see itself separate in activity or experience. Then the feelings of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ die out and disappear. The face of the Lord is realized when all experience becomes the experience of the Lord and when there is no experience of any other kind. The crown of the Lord is realized when the consciousness of this experience is lost in the divine bliss of Shiva. Really ‘Atma darsana’, the experience of the reality of Atman follows only when the Sivarupam is realized, where the transcendent atman is realized as the very atman of the atmasuddhi stage and this happens only when Sivadarsana is experienced. Jnanadrsti is the soul-sight of God, but it is really Brahmapiana where everything is seen as unity. There is then the overflow of superconscious into the core of our heart which overflows with love. ‘Sivaybga or communion with Shiva is the next stage where the soul is oned with God. Finally this blossoms into the last stage of ‘Sivabhoga’ or enjoyment or divine bliss. Pati is the conception of the Lord common to all. Shiva is the conception of God as the intimate lover of the beloved in union or identity. All these stages are not really successive; for purposes of classification, they have been thus distinguished. Some are aspects of one and the same stage. Some of them therefore may be looked upon as springing up simultaneously. In Atmarupam arise Tattvarupam and Tattvadarsanam. In Sivarupam arise Tattvasuddhi and Atmadarsanam. In Sivadarsanam occurs Atmasuddhi followed by Sivaybga and Sivabhoga.

III - Sri P.N. Srinivasachari’s identification:

Mystic experience starting as a feeling is thus sublimated; it becomes self-luminous. It is then a fulfilment of reason and thought, of feeling and emotion and of will and activity, all making for certainty and stability in the Reality. The Jnana Kriya Icchasaktls become perfect in the eternal values of Truth, Goodness and Beauty—Satyam Jhanam Swam Sundaram. Intuition is creative art where you see the fruition of all reason, feeling and wili. There is first equanimity or Santabhava. Then follows hankering after God, that God intoxication which may be called Prema of the Madhura Bhava of clandestine love. Bhakti is mukti in that stage. This Bhakti is not the means but the end itself; it is Parabhakti, i.e., Sadhya Bhakti and not Sadhana Bhakti according to Vaishnavite phraseology. There we see the valour of Bhakti where even Mukti is not sought for: “Vitum venta viral' says Cekkilar, It is love for love’s sake and not for anything else. Brahmanubhava alone remains. Svarajya is thus attained; it is perfection; it is a freedom from individuality; the finite becomes there the Infinite in all respects,

The mystics all the world over speak of Purgation, Illumination and Ecstasy and Rapture of union or unity. Sri P. N. Srinivasachari identifies them with Karma Jnana Bhakti yogas of the Gita. The ten Effects or Dasakarya relate to these three grades of the experience—Tattva, Atman and Shiva and these three grades may be seen as the three stages of Purgation, Illumination and Union.

IV - Mystics elsewhere, in the light of Shaivism:

1. Christians:

The Christians also speak of the three stages. First comes psychological integration of the ego which is exterior. It relates to the Tattvas. Here we have the nature mystic. The second is the revelation of God to the soul; here, from nature, one goes to the super-nature; this is interior and relates to the Atman. It may be noted that Atmadarsanam follows only Sivadarsanam or revelation of God to the Soul. The third is the Super-essential where the Soul turns to God for the establishment of the kingdom of God by the communion of souls through knowledge. Is this not the vision of Arurar as portrayed in his “Appalum aticcarntar”? Pattinattars poem is interpreted by Sivajnana Yogi to mean this. “The eye itself is light but it lies hidden till the self-luminous light comes in when the eye becomes a light. The eyes cannot see each other in the same way the eye sees the object. But when the eye sees the light it becomes one with the latter and experiences itself as the light. This is everybody’s experience. The eye can experience other eyes in a similar way. In a similar way the souls which have no relationship in themselves individually become one with Shiva and then they experience themselves and other souls”. This is the explanation Sivajnana Yogi gives for the lines occurring in Pattinattar: “When I obtained your Gracq, the fog of Maya was torn asunder. I obtained jnanadrsti. I saw then, Your great Reality. Seeing that I saw myself and I saw others. Those who have not experienced you are those who have not experienced themselves”.

But in Sivabhoga even this is transcended where we have the divine bliss without any feeling of duality. “All the activities of the world and its universal lords rise up from you as the waves do from the ocean and subside in you ebbing and flowing”.—So sings Pattinattar. In another place he speaks of the varied beautiful paintings appearing as one with the wall to those who come near it and touch the wall.

2. Plotinus:

Plotinus speaks of all paths leading to the same goal which is above the actual and the particular. The goal is where we stand in the immediate presence of the infinite which shines out as from the deep of the soul. We saw tattva is transcended by the mystic and to some this itself may bring the experience of the Lord. Plotinus speaks of the love of beauty as the path of the poet. Devotion to the One, which is real science, characterizes the philosopher and this second path of Plotinus answers to the jnana which we found related to the Atmakaryas of Shaivites. His third path is love and prayer of the devotee and this, therefore, may be identified with Bhaktiyoga and Sivakaryas.

3. Spinoza:

Spinoza’s three ascending stages of perfection, viz., sense knowledge, intellectual experience, and moral uplift based respectively on sense perception, reason and intuition, making a progress from sensuality (tattva) through spirituality (Atma) to Godliness (Shiva) also correspond to our three stages.

4. Guru Nanak:

Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism (1459-1538) speaks of five stages: (1) the Dharukhand or the Realm of Beauty which may stand for the first path of Plotinus; (2) Jnanakhand, the Realm of divine knowledge which answers to our jnana; (3), (4) and (5) viz., Sharankhand, Kharankhand and Sachkhand respectively, the Realm of ecstasy, the Realm of Power conquering the fear of death and the Realm of union with God are really the three grades of Bhakti, where the knowledge becomes one with will and feeling to attain the fruition of the Divine Bliss of union.

5. St. John:

St. John (St. Juan) of the Cross speaks of the three dark nights of the spiritual progress—marking the transit from Nature to the soul, from soul to God and from separation from God to union with God. First is the dark night of sense and here the images of the mind or vasanas fade away in prayer. In the second, the dark night of the spirit or faith, the soul is touched by Divine Grace. In the third night of the soul, there is the torpor of nihilism, where the soul suffers alone in its kaivalya hence hankering after union with God.

6. Sufis:

Sufis speak of four stages: (1) Shari’at, or the carrying out of the Islamic injunctions; (2) Malakut or introspection; (3) Marifah or attaining knowledge and (4) Haquiqah or the union with the All Self. The third and the fourth are the Jnana and Bhakti yoga, when it will be clear that the first and second relate to the Karma yoga of purgation transcending the tattvas. They speak of the journey to God in three stages of self control, spiritual illumination and ecstasy of union.

There are others who speak of the seven rungs of the ladder of Love; and Attar, the mystic poet of the Sufist (1140-1234) speaks of the seven valleys on our pilgrimage to the All-Self or Absolute—the valley of the quest, the valley of love, the valley of knowledge, the valley of detachment, the valley of unity, the valley of amazement, and the valley of annihilation of Self. The Dasakaryas are not all of them successive; some of them, as already pointed out, are simultaneous, for instance, Shiva Rupam and Atmadarsana, Sivadarsana and Atmasuddhi. If this is remembered, these valleys can be equated with the Dasakaryas.

These valleys are compared with the seven stages described by the Christians—purgation, illumination, contemplation, absorption in divine love, ecstasy, the Divine dark and merging in the ocean of Divine love.

John of Ruysbroek speaks in the treatise ‘On the Seven Grades of Love’, of these seven rungs of the ladder of love and inward life from, (1) goodwill; (2) voluntary poverty; (3) chastity; (4) humility; (5) desire for the glory of God; (6) Divine contemplation, which has three properties—intuition, purity of spirit and nudity of mind; to (7) the ineffable, unnameable transcendence of all knowledge and thought.

St. Augustine, the greatest of the early Christian mystics, (354 A.D. - 430 A.D.) speaks of purgation, illumination and union and he describes this mystic way as ascending up to God as pure Beauty through seven stages—animation, good-will, introversion or entering into the soul, recollection or freedom from distracting thought, self-discipline, cleansing of the heart and contemplation on God.

V - The four-fold path of Agamas:

The Agamas speak of the four-fold path of Carya, Kriya, Yoga, and Jnana. It is important to note that in every one of these four, there are four further stages making in all sixteen—Carya in Carya, Kriya in Carya, Yoga in Carya and Jnana in Carya; Carya in Kriya, Kriya in Kriya, Yoga in Kriya and Jnana in Kriya; Carya in Yoga, Kriya in Yoga, Yoga in Yoga and Jnana in Yoga; Carya in Jnana, Kriya in Jnana, Yoga in Jnana and Jnana in Jnana. This assumes that till one reaches the last stage there will occur in mixed forms when one has to distinguish them by the emphasis on the predominant element. Speaking roughly, Carya may be spoken as service or physical activity; Kriya is bhavana or mental activity—a play with God; Yoga is contemplation; Jnana is realization.

They are described as the rising rungs of a ladder. Their significance is well brought out by their effects. Carya leads to Salokya; Kriya, to Samipya; Yoga, to Sarupya; Jnana to Sayujya. When man thinks of God, he enters his mental sphere of God in his activity in this world with the freedom of the servant moving inside the home of the Lord. He has achieved Salokya— the sphere of God. He still moves about only in the circumference. He is engaged in Ddsya marga or the path of Service. Gradually he is drawn to the centre, near unto God—Sdmipya. He is engaged in the Satputra marga— the path of the child and moves about with the freedom and right of a son. The vision appears only to disappear. He brings that back in his own imagination. This is still immature. He plays like a child but he plays the game of God. Imagination or Bhavana has its full swing. He worships God in various forms. The world and its objects become spiritualized in this play. Puja or worship follows. Suddhi or purification occurs with various offerings to God. God incarnates Himself in Beauty and Images. The Bhavana is not, therefore, all noise and no meaning. Once man turns Godward, He rushes down and occupies his mind leaving room for nothing else. Man who has been identifying all along with matter and his body, feels he is not matter but spirit. He is the child of God, and, therefore, realizes his spiritual and divine form.

Sarupya Yoga or contemplation of communion follows and the child’s play becomes intense love for the Lord. An ethical life of self-control, service and love, a life of Yama, Niyama— control of senses and mind purifies the mind. Postures or asanas do not form merely physical culture but because thought also plays a part in them, they become a mental culture where body and mind as an organic whole become controlled and integrated as a step towards higher perfection. Pranayama is the control of the wandering mind through the control of breath. If the outgoing tendency is arrested, mind turns inward to think on thought itself as pratyahara. The soul is no longer fettered by matter; and mind is witharawn from the psychic plane; it concentrates on Atman, that is Dharana. Dhyana or mental retention and samadhi or spiritual unity follow. This is not enough. Purusa or Soul is therefore freed from Prakrti; but Atman has to go inside itself to its Paramatman. This Divine communion will follow as Sayujya in the succeeding Juana marga. It is the blossoming of Bhakti in all its glory.

VI - Sadhana ritual:

We may now discuss Arurar’s path. We have referred to the worship or pujd, offering water and flowers, which forms an important spiritual practice according to the Agamas—the Carya, Kriya and Yoga. These have been explained in the light of Arurar’s poems when discussing his Religion. This is the first step of purgation or purification and the principles underlying these may be here explained as the details have been discussed in our study of Religion.

All these Carya, Kriya and Yoga are included under the head ‘Sadncna’ which may be translated roughly as ritual. As Woodroffe has pointed out, ritual is the art of religion. Again he says, “Ritual and spiritual exercises are objectively considered the pictorial statement (of the Vedantic principles) as they are subjectively the effective means of their realization.” These are the means to the end, the end which is communion with the All Pervasive Brahman, or identity with it. In whatever way the end is defined, in the ritual stage, or in the stage of sadhana, there is dualism, because rituals imply a worshipper and the worshipped.

It is because of this Tayumanavar has said,

“Otariya tuvitame at-tuvita nAnattai untupanum nanamakum”—

‘The inexplicable dualism is the known path creating monistic knowledge’.

God may be defined in many ways but when worshipped God is the Supreme Person in the eye of all the sadhakas. The Absolute is in itself or relative to ourselves Sat, Cit and Ananda— Being, Consciousness and Bliss. But this can be realized as such only by the Siddha who has become completely transformed so as to be free from the vile influences of mind and body.

As Augustine has said, the mind is not at rest until it finds itself in God and therefore as opposed to the tendency of the mind to wander about the things of the world, there is also a tendency in this mind to thirst for God, as beautifully brought out in the Olympic mysteries. “I am the child of the earth and the starry sky but know that my origin is divine. I am devoured by and perish with thirst. Give me without delay the fresh water which flows from ‘the Lake of memory’. Pure, and issued from what is pure, I come towards Thee.” It is this thirst which is made permanent by ritual so that the thirst can be finally relieved by the joy of divine communion.

VII - Theory of worship:

Therefore, the sadhana is for attaining the siddhi. Even in the beginning stages, the ideal is not forgotten. The final goal is always held in view, and siddhi is attained when the whole life becomes a worship. As stated by Woodroffe, “The human need for ceremonies in the sense of the necessity which man feels of an exterior manifestation which shall both stimulate and translate his inner feelings is such that no religion of the past has been without its rites and ceremonies and even the shallowest of epochs, whilst affecting a superiority to them have yet preserved these ceremonies in its civil life.” The council of Trent declared, “The Catholic Church rests with the experience of ages clothed with their splendour and has introduced mystic benediction (mantram), incense (pukai), water (nir), lights (vilakku), bells (mani), flowers (pu), vestments and all the magnificence of its ceremonies in order to excite the spirit of religion to the contemplation of the profound mysteries which they reveal. As are its faithful, the Church is composed of both body and soul. It therefore renders to the Lord a double worship, exterior and interior; the latter being the prayer of the faithful, the breviary of its priest and the voice of Him ever interceding in our favour and the former the outward motions of the liturgy”. In spite of the sadhanas being intended for all grades of worshippers, it is a mark of the greatness of Agamic worship that it is open for all without distinction of caste or sex—the highest stage of spirituality and rationalistic approach are never forgotten. Again Woodroffe following Dela Vallei Poussin writes: “The virtue of its general method is not merely thaumaturgic, but is inherent in the mental states induced by dhyana and other physical and mental processes and the excitation of the exterior rituals; an inherence chiefly explained by the fact that as at base all existence is of the nature of the mind, the transformation of the mind is the transformation of existence itself.”

Mind according to Hinduism, is an unconscious force, though it shows some reflected consciousness. Mind and body belonging to the ‘Mayasakti or the unitizing power and because of this common origin become the subject and object respectively. Both these act as a screen or veil obstructing the Real in varying degrees. The rituals are intended to remove this obstruction or to purify this veil. As long as the mind exists, it must have an object or a content. The aim of the ritual is to make this content always good and pure. What can be a better object or content than the Absolute as the Supreme Person?

The psychology of the Vedanta throws a flood of light on this conception. Mind which can be compared to a lake of a reflected light on which falls the reflection of the spirit, projects itself or its rays through the sluices of the sense organs on to its object before it and takes the form of the object. Thus the mind becomes one with the object and perceives it. If the mind could similarly take the form of the Lord in the form of the image worshipped by it and assuming all the attributes of the Lord through contemplation, the ritual achieves a wonderful success. The dhyana or contemplation attains this. The wavering mind has then to be steadied so that it can concentrate almost incessantly on these forms and these qualities. This has to become almost a habit, a samskara. The good samskaras will drive away the old samskaras since the latter lose their force by non-user and so atrophy and die.

The rituals vary according to the fitness or adhikara of the respective worshippers of varying bhavas or temperaments or mental developments and these attainments even with reference to one and the same individual, progressively develop from the sthula or the gross to the suksma or the subtle stages. The Caryti, Kriya, Yoga and Jnana margas are based on this gradation which ultimately depends upon the temperament of the worshipper and his emotion which in one case will be more prone to worship the Lord as the servant, in other case to serve the Lord as the son, in a third case to behave like the friend and in the fourth case to pine for the Lord as the lover. The image worshipped is not a doll; if it has a form, it is an incarnation of beauty. Even if it is a symbol or a linga, it is a sign more than a symbol. God is all pervasive and in that sense God is there in the image. What then, is done at the time of worship is, to realize the divinity existing there, when the mind through the ritual, is transformed into a divine mould through contemplation. At least during the period of the pujd, this is attempted to be achieved.

VIII - Arurar and worship:

Nampi Arurar speaks of ‘cakali cental’. The Agamas speak of invoking God to be present there and to depart after pujd. Here it is not the God that is always all-pervasive that comes or goes. It is the mind that during such an invocation, takes the form of the divine mould and gives it up at the end of the puja when the concentration ceases. The worship with concrete materials is the first stage. Next comes the internal pitja or mental pujd without any of these concrete materials where flowers become mental attributes and where other offerings assume spiritual significance. The ‘Homa’ or sacrifice in fire is also done mentally till it becomes ‘dtmanivedana’ itself. The aim is to keep this concentration all through the waking and dreaming stages and this is developed through various stages of Yoga when it blossoms into Jnana or realization. Then follows sahajanista when the worshipper is always in contemplation and communion with God as referred to by Arurar, “Enni yiruntu kitantu natantum annalend ninaivar vinai tirppdr’. Mantras are uttered and we have explained the theory of the mantra in our discussion on artha and sabda prapancas. The mantra represents the very form of the Lord and by japa the divine power submerges the worshipper in its flood of divinity, and the sabdaprapanca is thus purified and transcended.

The Tantras speak of Bhutasuddhi, the purification of the elements. Impurities and sins are all burnt away in the mental fire and the nectar of divine rapture purifies the soul. The spiritual power lying static in Muladhara wakes up breaking through Svddhisthana, Manipuraka, Anahata, Visuddhi, A}na and reaching the Sahasrdra it lies in union with Shiva. This is at first imagined and in the end becomes true, for, as the Chandogya Upanisad says what man thinks, that he becomes, a srti which Tayumanavar translates, “Yatonru pavikka nan atuvatalal unnai nanenru pavikka attuvita markkamuralam” Arurar describes the difficulty of such a contemplation in the verse “Unnaippol ennaip pavikkamatten”. Speaking of this ritual, the Quest (Oct. 1913) says, “From one point of view, it is perhaps the most elaborate system of auto suggestion in the world. But the Hindus think of it as of greater spiritual value than mere auto-suggestion”.

Usually, pleasing things are offered in worship—what the worshipper thinks pleasant and what he himself will aspire for. He offers things and then after such an offering he partakes of them, clothes himself with them. He thus tries to live in God: “Ututtuk kalainta nin pltaka atai ututtuk kalittatu (kalaittatu) untu, Totutta tulay malar cutik kalaintana cutum ittontarkalom” ®—‘We are the servants of the Lord, clothing ourselves with His used up gold cloth eating what He leaves and adorning ourselves with His used up garlands of tulaci’. When a man reaches a spiritual state where he sees God in everything, even a stone may be offered as a flower even as Cakkiyanayanar did. There is then nothing mean or unclean, valuable or valueless. Every act there becomes a worship, every speech a prayer, every thought a divine contemplation—this is Sahajanista. This is how Arurar has looked upon everything he enjoyed. This is best illustrated by the life of the great king Janaka, and Arurar is one like Janaka in domestic or political life always living in God.

There is a story told of Arurar which explains his attitude: When Ceraman Perumal visited Arurar in Paravaiyar’s house at Arur, this lady set before both of them greens to be separated from grass and other non-edible stuff, so as to make the greens ready for cooking. Both the saints attended to this work of helping Paravaiyar; but she took only those greens cleaned by Ceraman leaving those cleaned by Arurar. Ceraman remained puzzled. Paravaiyar explained that those made ready by Arurar were not to be cooked because in his Sahaja Nistd he would have offered the greens already in his hands to God, for all the actions of Arurar were nothing but worship or puja. We have explained in this light our saint’s hymns praying for labourers, gold and other necessities and luxuries of life. His life is one continuous worship or cotemplation or communion with God.

IX - Marriage—Yoga and Yajna:

There is one verse wherein our poet speaks of his embrace of Cankili as a divine communion. Cekkilar describes the married life of Arurar as a life of divine yoga. This is a part of his Sahaja Nista. But this may remind one of the Virasadhana of the Tantras. This conception of sexual union as divine communion is in the best traditions of the Upanisads where the Brhad Aranyaka speaks of it as a Homa. It speaks of the union of man and wife as a sacrificial rite—a sacrifice in fire wherein the woman is both the hearth (kunda) and flame and according to this Upanisad, he who knows this as Homa attains liberation.

Woodroffe quotes and translates a Tantric mantra which will explain Cekkilar’s description of this as a yoga; for this mantra speaks of this as a yoga and homa:

“Om dharmadharma havirdipte atmagnau manasa srucha,
Susumnavartamana nityam aksavrittir juhomyaham svaha”—

‘Om. Into the fire which is spirit (dtma) brightened by (the pouring thereon) of the ghee of merit and demerit, I, by the path of susumna (the central nerve) ever sacrifice (to homa of) the functions of the senses, using the mind as the ladle. Svaha’.

An illuminative explanation of the underlying idea is offered by Woodroffe:

“To the ordinary English reader the association of eating and drinking and sexual union with worship will probably be incongruous, if not downright repulsive. ‘Surely’, he might say, ‘such things are far apart from prayer to God. We go and do them, it is true, because they are a necessity of our animal nature, but prayer or worship have nothing to do with such coarseness. We may pray before or after (as in Greece) on taking food, but the physical acts between are not prayer. Such notions are based partly on that dualism which keeps separate and apart God and his creature, and partly, on certain false and deprecatory notions concerning matter and material functions.

According to Indian Monism such worship is not only understandable but (I am not speaking of any particular form of it) the only religious attitude consistent with its principles Man is, in his essence or spirit, divine and one with the universal spirit. His mind and body and all their functions are divine, for they are not merely a manifestation of the Power (Shakti) of God but that Power itself. To say that matter is in itself low or evil is to calumniate that Power.

Nothing in natural function is low or impure to the mind which recognized it as Shakti and the working of Shakti. It is the ignorant and, in a true sense, vulgar mind which regards any natural function as low or coarse; the action in this case is seen in the light of the inner vulgarity of mind. It has been suggested that in its proper application the maithuna karma is only application to sexual function of the principles of Yoga. Once the reality of the world as grounded in the Absolute is established, the body seems to be less an obstacle to freedom, for it is a form of that self-same Absolute.

The creative function being natural is not in itself culpable. There is no real antinomy between spirit and nature which is an instrument for the realization of the spirit. The method borrows, it is said (ib), that of Yoga not to frustrate, but to regulate enjoyment. Conversely, enjoyment produces Yoga by the union of body and spirit. In the psycho-physiological rites of the Shaktas, enjoyment is not an obstacle to Yoga but may also be a means to it.

This, he says, is an important conception which recalls the discovery of the Mahayana that Samsara and Nirvana are one. For here are made one, Yoga which liberated and Bhoga which enchains (ib.). It will then be readily understood that according to this doctrine only those are competent for this Yoga who are truly free, or on the way to freedom, of all dualism.

X - Social worship:

This is from the individual point of view. But Hinduism believes in universal salvation. Therefore, it cannot forget the society and social worship. The temples provide the means of Such a social worship, and the Tevaram saints with their hearts beating in communion with the hearts of the world at large, toil hard for the universal salvation through their songs even today sung in all the temples of the Tamil land. As pointed out elsewhere this social communion in song is preferred by Arurar to Mukti or rather this is looked upon as the bliss of Mukti itself. Dr. V. V. Ramana Sastri (in his introduction to Nallaswamy Pillai’s Studies in Shaiva Siddhanta) brings out the importance of temple worship in Agamic lore which has influenced the whole of India, thanks to our Tevaram saints: “If the Fire worship be regarded as the ritual inculcated in the Vedas as the outer symbolism of spiritual truths, the temple worship may, on its side, be also said to assume a similar importance in regard to the Agamas. For the rest, it will be seen that in India at the present day there is hardly a Hindu who does not observe some kind of temple worship or another, which points to the conclusion that the Agamas have had, in one form or another, a universal hold, upon the continent of Hindu India and that their influence tells”.