Jnana about Shiva's Tattva Continued

The sages asked

You have spoken of Pashu. What is Pasha? Tell us the marks by which Pati is different from these two.

Vayu answered

There is one who lets a person cross over this vessel of the gunas. He is Pati, the maker of the universe, who frees Pashu from Pasha. Without him, how could the universe have been made? Both Pashu and Pasha are insentient and lack knowledge. Nothing is seen to make itself without an intelligent cause, whether Pradhana, an atom or any insentient thing. The universe has many parts, but their working depends on a maker. Ownership of the action rests with Pati, not with Pashu or Pasha. Any claim to ownership by Pashu, which is really only an instrument, is like that of a blind and ignorant man walking. A person who sees the atman as one thing and its driver as another is thought fit for immortality. Truly, Pati is the supreme goal, beyond Pashu and Pasha. Whoever knows him as the brahman is freed from birth in any species. Isha lights up the universe and also frees it, the union of Kshara and Akshara, manifest and unmanifest. The enjoyer, the enjoyed and the one who drives, these three should be thought of as separate. For seekers there is nothing higher than this knowledge.

Oil is in sesame seeds, ghee in curd, water in every stream, fire in the arani sticks. In the same way the marks of the great atman are in one's own atman. A person always devoted to austerity and to the truth sees it. Isha alone, with his own Shaktis, the Ishanis, creates this illusion. He makes all the worlds, and that is why he is called Isha. So Rudra is alone, with no second. He creates the universe with its worlds, protects it and withdraws it. His eyes, faces, arms and feet are everywhere in it. Maheshvara alone is the divinity who made heaven, earth and the space between. He is the source of all the devas and they dissolve into him. He made Hiranyagarbha first among the gods. The shrutis say Rudra is the great sage above all others. I know this great Purusha, immortal and fixed, with the colour of the sun, standing beyond darkness. Nothing is higher than the paramatman, nothing smaller or larger. The whole universe is filled by him. His faces, heads and necks are everywhere. He lives in the cavity of every being. Bhagavan pervades everything and Shiva goes everywhere. His hands and feet, eyes, heads, faces and ears are in all directions. He stands enveloping all the worlds. He lights up the senses and the gunas but has no senses. Ishana is lord of everyone, friend and refuge of all. Without eyes he sees, without ears he hears. He knows everything, but nobody knows him. He is called the supreme Purusha, smaller than the smallest and greater than the greatest, without decay. Maheshvara is hidden in the cavities of all beings. He has no intellect; he is intellect. He has ultimate greatness and holds everything up. Through Ishana's favour a person becomes free of sorrow and sees him. I know the ageless, ancient lord who goes everywhere. Those who know the brahman say he has no birth.

When he brought about the end, Maheshvara thought of creating the universe again from the beginning. He made the three worlds alone, joined with his many Shaktis. The wonderful, supreme Shivaa is called mother of the universe. Without beginning, she alone gave birth to many kinds of beings, red, white and black. She is the mother of man. There is another, also unborn, who is nothing but her own form. Both are unborn. The second one enjoys her and then leaves her. Two birds sit joined on the same tree. One eats the sweet pippala fruit. The other does not eat but only looks on. The being sitting on the tree is sunk in delusion and grieves, but is glad when he sees the other, Isha, the supreme cause from whom hymns, sacrifices and rites come. Realizing that greatness, he is free of grief and happy. The other creates maya in the universe and plunges this one into it. Maya is Prakriti, and the one who wields maya is Maheshvara. The whole universe is pervaded by his body, and Ishana's parts exist among the gross and the subtle. He makes the universe and wraps it. A person who knows that Shiva is Ishvara gains great peace. He is time, the protector, the master of the universe, and knowing him as such a person is freed from the noose of death. Ghee is in the cream of milk, and one who knows the lord is likewise hidden in subtle form inside all beings is freed from all sins. He is the supreme divinity, the maker of the universe, and one who knows him in the heart gains immortality.

When nothing existed, no night and no day, Shiva alone was, and eternal wisdom flowed from him. Nobody can grasp his top, sides or middle. He is called great fame and has no image. Those afraid of birth turn their minds to the unborn. For protection they look to Rudra, whose face is toward the south. The two syllables are said to stand for the infinite. Like a mystery, Vidya and Avidya lie inside, as if hidden. Avidya is called Kshara and Vidya is immortality. The one who rules both and is distinct from them is Maheshvara. He alone spreads his net in many ways, the powerful one who rules all. He is radiant himself and lights the directions, up, down and sideways. He is by nature alone, and the revered one presides over everything. All words speak of his nature and try to measure it. He is the enjoyer of the gunas, and so he is established in the universe. Devas and great sages know him as the secret hidden in the Upanishads, the brahman greater than the greatest. He gave birth to Brahma and existed before the universe. He receives all that exists. Shiva is responsible for being and non-being. He makes the whole collection of his kalas. Those who know the divinity leave their bodies. By the greatness of the divinity this whole universe turns, though the deluded call it nature or time. He always wraps everything as death and as the Destroyer. His act makes the universe evolve with its beings. He does many kinds of acts and withdraws from many. In truth, yoga comes by uniting with his tattvas. In time he himself uses eight, three, two or one of his attributes to create the universe. Beings act because of their qualities, and when qualities are absent action stops. When karma is spent, in truth the entity moves on to the other one. That is the reason for yoga, the union of the enjoyer and the enjoyed.

Parameshvara is beyond the three times. He is all-knowing and lord of the three gunas, and himself the brahman greater than the greatest. He is Bhava, whose form is the universe, Bhava the maker of beings, who is worshipped. He is lord of the gods and worthy of the universe's worship. He is beyond time and the world display comes from him. He upholds dharma and holds back sin. He is the lord who enjoys, and the universe rests on him. Maheshvara is above all lords, the supreme god among gods and supreme lord among lords. We know the divinity as lord of the lords of the world. He has no tasks and no reason for tasks. In the universe none is seen who equals or surpasses him. The shrutis speak of his supreme, varied and natural powers. With his knowledge, strength and action he made the universe. He has no lord and no gender, and nobody rules him. He is the cause of all causes and lord of all lords. He has no father and is born of no source. He has none of the reasons for birth, such as dirt, maya and the rest. He alone is hidden inside all beings and pervades the universe. He is in the self of all beings and is called the controller of dharma. He lives in all beings, free of gunas, the witness. He alone controls, and has no tasks, yet he makes many selves incapable. Among all that is eternal he is most eternal, and among all that is conscious most conscious. Many give up desire and come to the lord of desire. He is lord and cause of the universe and can be reached through samkhya and yoga. If a Pashu comes to know the divinity he is freed from all Pashas. He makes the universe and knows it. He alone knows his own origin. Having gunas, he makes time. He is the lord who knows Pradhana and the field, lord of the gunas, who frees from the Pasha. He first made Brahma and himself taught him the Vedas. By my own understanding and by his favour I will know the divinity. Wishing to be free of samsara I take refuge in Shiva, the refuge. He is without parts and without tasks, without blemish, worthy of worship. He is the bridge to the supreme amrita, like the wind that scatters clouds. People are covered by space as by a hide, and when they know Shiva, misery ends.

Great sages, by the strength of austerity and his favour, and without much effort, I gained the knowledge of consciousness. It is sacred and destroys sin. It is the supreme secret in Vedanta, and in an earlier kalpa Brahma told it to me. That is my good fortune. This excellent knowledge must not be given to someone who is not tranquil, to a son of poor conduct, or ever to a disciple. For this the divinity himself was the guru. It must be told to a worthy and great-souled person with great devotion to the divinity. Now hear it in brief. Shiva is higher than Purusha and Prakriti and beyond them. At creation he does everything, and at dissolution he withdraws everything again.