A Brief Account on Saiva Siddhantham

1. Saiva Siddhantam
சைவ சித்தாந்தம்
Religious Teachers Training
Seminar Organised By
MALAYSIA HINDU SANGAM
National and Penang State
Council
on 21th April 2024

2.  The word Hinduism is a common name which denotes many
Indian religions, including Saivism. It is not a religion by itself.
Saivism or Saiva religion is the dominant religion of the Hindu
fold.
 Saiva Siddhanta (Saiva Siththaantham in Tamil) is the
philosophy of Saiva religion which considers Lord Siva as its
primary deity. Siddhanta means the final conclusion (reached
after taking into consideration all other important views).
 It is the popular philosophical system of the Tamils of South
India, based on Saiva Agamas, Upanishds, ancient Tamil
works, Thirumurais and Meykanda Sastra works.
Saiva Siddhantam
சைவ சித்தாந்தம்

3.  Who am I?
 Is there a God?
 What are the natures of God, Soul and the cosmos?
What is my relationship with God and the worldly
things?
 What is the reason for happenings in life over
which one has no control?
 Such questions often arise in any philosophical
system.
 Saiva Siddhanta gives plausible answers and
explanations to them.
Philosophical Questions
சித்தாந்தக் ககள்விகள்

4.  Saiva Siddhanta believes in the three eternal entities of God,
Soul and Bondage (materials of bondage). These are
called Pati, Pasu and Pasam respectively in Siddhanta
philosophy.
 Pati means Lord (of the souls) who is God.
 Pasam means bondage.
 Pasu means that which is under bondage.
 All things known and perceived are included in these three
categories. According to Saiva Siddhanta God is one, Souls
are many and Pasam consists of three impurities
called Anavam, kanmam) and Mayai.
 Like Pati who is real and eternal, Pasu and Pasam are also real
and eternal.
Eternal Entities
முப்பபாருள் உண
் சம

5.  Existence of God and other eternal entities is established by
various epistemological means. Logical arguments, based on
sense perception, inference and scripture are important means
of proving their existence.
 Anything that has a beginning, existence and decay is made by
someone. It has a maker.
 Our physical body including the mental and psychological
equipments, the world and the worldly things had a beginning.
 They exist for a certain period of time and then decay. They,
therefore, have a maker who is God.
 Existence of God is thus established by inference. The existence
of other entities is also established similarly by various means.
Eternal Entities
முப்பபாருள் உண
் சம

6.  God: Siva (Sivam) is the name given to their God by the Saivites. Siva
means One who is perfect and /or auspicious.
 His inherent nature is wisdom. He is with infinite love to benefit the
souls. It is His Grace which is part of Him.
 Like the sun and its light, He remains inseparable with
his Sakthy which is Grace.
 Sakthy literally means power or energy. He is omnipresent.
 The Tamil word for God, Kadavul, meaning One who resides outside
and inside, indicates his omnipresence.
God
இசைவன
்

7.  Soul: According to Saiva Siddhanta, Souls are many. No two persons
or beings are alike.
 We may therefore, conclude that every living being has a soul of its
own.
 Anma and uyir are other names for soul. Soul has the capabilities to
know, act and desire. These are called its gnana sakthy, kriya
sakthy and iccha sakthy respectively.
 These capabilities are impaired by the associated entity called anava.
Soul has a dependant nature and behaves like the one on which it
depends.
 When it depends on the worldly things, it behaves like them. When it
depends on God, it behaves like a divine being.
 This nature of dependency is called in Tamil as ‘Sarnthathan
Vannamathal’.
Soul
ஆன
் மா

8. Aanavam
 Anavam is the cause of all negative qualities of the soul. It is the
source of ego, ignorance, hatred, etc.
 Anavam is associated with the soul from beginning-less time like
verdigris on copper, or the husk on paddy, it associate with soul.
 Obscuring soul’s power to know is the inherent nature of anavam.
It is its special nature, called ‘sorupa lakshana’.
 In association with karma and maya, anavam misleads the soul to
know mistakenly.
 This nature of anavam is called ‘thadastha lakshana’.
 Anavam’s actions on the soul are summarised under seven
categories in Saiva Siddhanta.
 Anavam is spoken of only in Saiva Siddhanta and not in any other
Indian philosophies.

9. Kanmam (Karma)
 Karma means action. Vinai is the Tamil word for it.
 Every action has its own result and every one has to experience
the fruit of his action. This is the theory of karma.
 ‘Good and evil do not come to us from others’ is a phrase in an
early Tamil work, Sangam literature. This is expressive of the
Karmic theory. In philosophical language, both action and its result
are called karma.
 Many incidences in life escape reason for them. Cause of them is
not known. Law of karma offers explanations to them.
 The results of one’s action or karma in a particular life come to
experience in the same life or in another life, and get exhausted.
 Fruit of one’s karma is fed to the soul to come to experience by
God, at a suitable time and surrounding decided by Him.

10. Mayai (Maya)
 Maya is the subtle entity which is the first cause of all material
things. It is real, and not an illusion as in Vedanta philosophy. To
perform any karma or action, material objects such as the physical
body and worldly things are required. These are created by God
from maya. This is akin to a potter making pots from the clay. The
physical body is made from maya and given to the soul. Soul taking
birth is obtaining the physical body. At death its body disintegrates
to maya. Thus birth and death are mere transformation from one
state to another, from maya to gross body and vice versa.
According to Saiva Siddhanta, only that which is in existence
comes out in another form. Nothing comes out from the void. This
is an important concept in Saiva Siddhanta, called‘Satkariya
Vatham’. ‘Sat’ means that which is real; ‘kariya’ means the product
and ‘vatham’ means concept.

11.  The most respected shaivite scriptures in thamiz the
thirumuRais, were composed almost in the first millenium
developed the in the thamiz people the spiritual nourishment.
 Based on these holy texts and developed on the fertility they
made in the thought process gave rise to many philosophers
dwelling in the highly complex question of the Supreme, soul
and surroundings and their inter-relationship.
 Among them four are quite significant and are referred to as
SandhAnak KuravargaL. The texts which are explanatory/
commentory texts of Shiava Sidhdhantha, that were written in
this period of 12th to 14th century are called SanthAna Nulgal
or MeykaNda NUlgaL.
Shaivite Scriptures
சைவ நூல் கள்

12.  While the rest of the thirumuRais are singing the glory of Lord
shiva, the nineth thirumuRai thirumanthiram is the one that
deals in detail about the philosophy and yoga.
 These santhAna texts are absolutely dedicated for philosophical
discussions. These texts analyse the various factors, logics and
experiences, refute and support the various philosophies on the
ground of raising and answering questions.
 These are excellent food for thought and are Shaiva
sidhdhanthic philosophical tutorials. May the Nameless,
Formless Supreme pashupati, Which transcedes everything
bless us, the seekers !!
Thirumanthiram
திருமந்திரம்

13. Saiva Siddhanta Texts Author
1.திருவுந்தியார் (thiruvundhiyAr)
thiruviyalUr uyya vandha
dhEva nAyanAr
2.திருக்களிற்றுப் படியார் (thirukkaLiRRup padiyAr)
thirukkadavUr uyya vandha
dhEvar
3.சிவஞான பபாதம் (shiva gnAna bodham)
meykaNda sivam
4.சிவஞான சித்தியார் (chivanyAna chiththiyAr)
aruNandi chivAchchAriyAr
5.இருபா இருபஃது (irupA irupaqthu)
6.சிவப் பிரகாசம் (chivap pirakAcham)
umApati shivAchchAriyAr
7.திருவருட் பயன
் (thiruvarut payan)
8.வினா வவண
் பா (vinA veNpA)
9.பபாற்றிப் பஃவறாடட (pORRip paqRodai)
10.வகாடிக்கவி (kodikkavi)
11.வநஞ்சு விடு தூது (nenychuvidu thUdhu)
12.உண
் டம வநறி விளக்கம் (uNmai neRi viLakkam)
13.சங்கற்ப நிராகரணம் ( chaNkaRpa nirAkaraNam )
14.உண
் டம விளக்கம் (uNmai viLakkam) manavAchakaN kadandhAr
SanthAna NulgaL / MeykaNda NulgaL
ைந்தான நூல் கள் / பமய்கண
் டார் நூல் கள்

14. சிவஞான கபாதம்
Sivagnana Bodham
 1. அவன் அவள் அதுவவனும் அடவ மூவிடன
டமயின் , பதாற்றிய திதிபய வயாடுங்கி
மலத்துளதாம், அந்தம் ஆதி என் மனார் புலவர்.
 I. As the (seen) universe, spoken of as he, she and it, undergoes
three changes (origin, development, and decay),
 This must be an entity created (by an efficient cause.) This entity
owing to its conjunction with Anava Mala has to emanate from
Hara to whom it returns during Samharam. Hence, the learned
say that Hara is the first cause.

15.  2. அடவபய தாபன யாயிரு விடனயின்
பபாக்குவரவுபுரிய ஆடணயின் நீ க்கமின் றி
நிற்குமன
் பற.
 II. He is one with the souls (Abetha). He is different from
them (Betha). He is one and different from them
(Bethabetha). He stands in Samavaya union with His Gnana
Sakti and causes the souls to undergo the processes of
evolution (births) and return (Samharam) by including their
good and bad acts (Karma).
சிவஞான கபாதம்
Sivagnana Bodham

16.  3. உளது, இலவதன் றலின் , எனதுடவலன
் றலின
்
ஐம்புலன
் , ஒடுக்கம் அறிதலின
் , கண
் படில்
உண
் டிவிடனயின்டமயின் , உண
் ர்த்த உணர்தலின் ,
மாயாவியந்திரனுவினுள் ஆன
் மா.
 III. It rejects every portion of the body as not being itself; It says
my body; it is conscious of dreams; it exists in sleep without
feeling pleasure or pain or movements; it knows from others;
This is the soul which exists in the body formed as a machine
from Maya.
சிவஞான கபாதம்
Sivagnana Bodham

17.  ‘Among the many revelations that Mohenjadaro and
Harappa have in store for us, none perhaps is more
remarkable than this discovery that Saivism has a
history going back to the chalcolithic age’ – John
Marshall
 The Saiva religion and its philosophy are praised
highly by scholars. ‘Saivism is the oldest pre-historic
religion of S. India’ – G.U.Pope
 ‘One of the most closely reasoned religious
philosophies that couldn’t found anywhere in the
world’. – John H. Piet
Quotes of Foreigners
on Saiva Siddhantham

18. Presented by
Dr.M.Bala Thrumalingam, MBBS, MSc, PhD;
Co-ordinator - Religious Advisory Board
MALAYSIA HINDU SANGAM
THANK YOU!!!