Jnana about Shiva's Tattva

Suta said

First the fortunate sages of Naimisharanya bowed and questioned lord Pavana in the proper way.

The sages of Naimisha asked

How did you gain knowledge of Ishvara? How are you so full of feeling for Shiva, the unmanifest brahman who is unborn?

Vayu answered

The twenty-first kalpa is called Shveta-Lohita. In that kalpa the four-faced one wished to create and tormented himself with austerities. Because of his fierce austerity his father was pleased and took the form of a divine boy, the most handsome of all, named Shveta. In the form of that sage he spoke to Brahma in divine words, and Maheshvara, lord of the gods, showed himself. Brahma saw his father, his own lord and master, bowed, and received supreme knowledge and the Gayatri mantra. The four-faced creator of the universe gained higher knowledge and made all beings, moving and unmoving. Brahma heard this amrita from Parameshvara, and I received it from his mouth through the strength of austerity.

The sages asked

What is this knowledge you gained? What is this auspicious great truth? By devotion to what does a person find happiness?

Vayu answered

Long ago I received knowledge of Pashu, Pasha and Pati. A person who wants happiness must be supremely devoted to this. Misery comes from lack of knowledge and knowledge removes it. Knowledge lets one sort objects, and objects are of two kinds, sentient and insentient. One controls both. In order they are called Pashu, Pasha and Pati. Those who know the truth and the lord also call them Akshara, Kshara and Ksharaksharapara. Pashu is called Akshara, Pasha is called Kshara, and Ksharaksharapara is called Pati.

The sages asked

What is called Akshara? What is called Kshara? Wind god, what is beyond the two? Tell us.

Vayu answered

Prakriti is called Kshara and Purusha is called Akshara. The one who calls on these two is the supreme Parameshvara.

The sages asked

What is called Prakriti? What is held to be Purusha? How are the two related? Who is the Ishvara who drives them?

Vayu answered

Maya is called Prakriti, and Purusha is wrapped in Maya. The two are linked through the base and through karma. Shiva is the Ishvara who drives them.

The sages asked

What is Maya? What does Maya enclose? What is the nature of the base, and where does it come from? What is Shiva's nature, and where does Shiva come from?

Vayu answered

Maya is the Shakti of Maheshvari. The form that is consciousness is enclosed by Maya. Dirt covers consciousness. Shiva's own nature is purity.

The sages asked

How can Maya cover the one who pervades everything? What is the reason? Why is Purusha covered, and how can that be undone?

Vayu answered

What pervades can still be covered, as the kalas also cover. The cause is karma, and enjoyment counters it. Then the dirt is destroyed.

The sages asked

What are the kalas? What is karma? How does it begin and how does it end? What are its fruits, and what supports it? Who enjoys, and what is enjoyment? What is the means of enjoyment? What causes the dirt to be destroyed? Once the dirt is gone, who is Purusha?

Vayu answered

Kala, Vidya, Raga, Kaala and Niyati are what is meant by "Kala and the others." Purusha is the enjoyer. Good and bad deeds are karma. Its fruits are happiness and misery. The one who stands at the start and the end of enjoyment is free of dirt. Ignorance is the support. Karma is destroyed by enjoyment. The unmanifest is what is enjoyed, and the inner and outer doors of the body are the means of enjoying. Grace is obtained through great feeling, and that destroys the dirt. When the dirt is gone a person becomes like Shiva.

The sages asked

What task belongs to each of the five, Kala and the others? Why is Purusha called the enjoyer when the atman is also called that? What is the one that is not unmanifest, and in what form is it enjoyed? What supports the process of enjoyment? Why is it called a body?

Vayu answered

Vidya marks out direction and activity. Time and attachment give the push, and time also decides when it is cut. Destiny is the one who controls. The unmanifest is the cause, made of the three gunas together. Those who know the truth call it Pradhana and Prakriti. Its quality is not being manifest, but it shows itself through the kalas. Deluded by ideas of joy and misery, the atman enjoys the three gunas. Sattva, rajas and tamas come from Prakriti and are present in it in subtle form, like oil in sesame seeds. Briefly, happiness and its cause are the nature of sattva. Rajas is the opposite. Numbness and delusion go with tamas. Sattva is said to lead upward and tamas downward, and the course in the middle is rajas. In short, there are the five tanmatras, the five gross elements, the five organs of perception, the five organs of action, and the remaining four: Pradhana, intellect, ego and mind. The unmanifest is said to be their transformation. As the cause it is not manifest. As an effect, as in the body, which is like a pot, it becomes manifest. A pot is not essentially different from clay, and likewise the manifest body is not essentially different from the unmanifest. So the unmanifest is the cause of action, and the body is the support of enjoyment. There is nothing else.

The sages asked

Intellect and senses are in the body. The word atman is used for something beyond them. How can it exist on its own?

Vayu answered

The lord is certainly beyond intellect, senses and body. There is an entity called the atman, and the reason for it is not easy to grasp. The wise do not call the intellect, senses and body the atman. If it seems otherwise, one is bound by ignorance. So the smritis speak of experiencing the one who remains, imperceptible and hard to know. The Vedas and Vedanta chant of him as the inner controller. He is everywhere, pervading all, eternal, yet unmanifest, and nobody sees him anywhere. The eyes cannot perceive him and the other senses cannot grasp him. The great atman is perceived only by a mind that has been lit. It is not masculine, feminine or neuter, not above, below or sideways, and is nowhere. It has no body yet exists undecaying within bodies, moving and unmoving. A person who perseveres can always perceive it as one sees an image. What more is there to say? Purusha is separate from the body, and those who do not see this have faulty sight.

This body is impure and unruly, temporary, and subject to sorrow. It is called Purusha's, but Purusha is not this and lies beyond. A person becomes happy, unhappy or foolish through his own karma. This is like a seed, and Purusha is joined to these hardships. A field flooded with water lets sprouts grow, and in the same way, for lack of knowledge, karma floods a person's body. These bodies are mortal forms and homes of great misery, and there are thousands in the past and thousands to come. The atman lives in past and future bodies that decay, and though it stays long it gains nothing by this. Though wrapped in bodies, something detached can be noticed, like the moon in the sky seen through drifting clouds. The atman follows different courses in many bodies, like a die thrown on an ashtapada board. Nothing is its own, and it belongs to nothing. Wives, sons and kin are like people met on a road, or like one log meeting another on the wide ocean: they meet and drift apart, and the bond between living beings is like that. The atman perceives the body, but the body does not perceive it. The supreme perceives them both, but they do not perceive him. From Brahma down to the immobile, all these are Pashus. A Pashu is bound by a Pasha and feeds on happiness and misery. The learned say these are means for Ishvara's play. A being who does not know Isha cannot control his happiness and unhappiness. Driven by Ishvara, he goes to heaven or is born a dog.

Suta concluded

Hearing what Anila said, the sages were delighted. They bowed to Vasu, who was versed in the Shiva agamas, and spoke.