Instructions about Jnana

Vayu said

Brahmanas, you have voiced your doubts and given your reasons. When people of good understanding wish to know, asking questions does not make them non-believers. To clear the confusion of the good, I will give proofs. Without the lord's favour nothing can be done for the unworthy, and without Shiva's full favour it is settled that nothing good can be achieved. To win his favour, a good nature is enough; without it, what can be received? The universe is made of Pashu and Pasha, and all of it needs the supreme one's favour. He is Pashupati because he gives this favour, and the word Pati means he favours everyone. If Shiva uses some means to bring this about, how does that make him dependent? No favour can be independent of whoever receives it. So "self-ruling" should not be taken to mean that he is impartial in the sense of doing nothing. A person who is favoured depends on another, and without that favour neither enjoyment nor liberation can occur. Embodied selves receive Shiva's favour when their ignorance leaves them. When Shambhu presides there is not the slightest ignorance.

When Shiva takes a form, the image of Shiva is worshipped. But that sakala form is only a means to realize his nishkala form. The nishkala form is not itself the supreme cause. In fact, who has ever realized or felt the sakala form? He can be reached only through proofs that point to his nature. So an intelligent person should not ignore these forms and their signs. Shiva's self has no form, and that self needs no support or image. He does have forms, and the images are expressions of his self; their signs point to the other. Fire laid in wood is not noticed until it is kindled. Shiva's presence on an image is like that. When someone is asked to bring fire, he brings a blazing piece of wood, not fire itself. That is how Shiva is worshipped in an image, and why an image is imagined for worship and other rites. Whatever is done for the image is done for Shiva himself. In particular we take lingams and the like to be expressions of Shiva's self and worship them. Parameshthi favours the selves in embodied beings. In the same way, in the form of the image, Shiva favours us, the Pashus. It is to favour the worlds that Shiva presides over Parameshthi, Sadashiva and all the other embodied entities. Above all for the sake of enjoyment and liberation, although an image does not represent Shiva's true tattva, it is accepted as his tattva.

It is held that a jivatman must undergo the results of karma as happiness and unhappiness. Since Shiva has no karma, what does such experience amount to for him? Shiva favours everyone. He holds nobody back. When faults lead to restraint, that cannot be blamed on Shiva. Instances are cited of his punishing Brahma and others; he did this in his form of Shrikantha for the welfare of the worlds. Shrikantha without doubt presides over the universe, and in play Shiva presides over the image called Shrikantha. As said, the gods and others were punished, but only because they had faults. When these beings shed their sins they were freed from their anxieties. When punishment is of this kind the learned do not find fault with it. A king who punishes those who deserve it is praised. If he did not ensure success in the tasks of everyone in this universe, how could he be Ishvara? He can be Ishvara only as lord of the entire universe. Isha's will sets the rules and Vidhatri carries out his commands. The instructions take the form of what to do and what not to do. A person of good feeling follows these rules, and when the opposite is seen, the person is called wicked. The good must be protected and the wicked restrained. For those who act the other way, the rod is the only way to calm them. Rule by the rod is a sign of working for welfare, and its opposite is not called beneficial. Ishvara's mark is that he always keeps to what is beneficial. How can the good blame him for punishing the wicked? People who condemn him on such grounds are irrational. What is improper is only what agitates the worlds. Not every attempt at punishment is touched by hatred. When a father punishes his son to teach him, hatred is not the motive. Whoever follows the path of punishment will be somewhat harsh, and sometimes he will not be neutral. Otherwise he will fail to punish sinners, and such neutrality harms others. One who causes misery is said to be violent and cruel; some insist this must be a rule and others do not. When a physician operates on a patient, we do not call it violence. We do not say cruelty, because the intent is not cruel. To be gentle and non-violent toward adversaries is not a desirable quality; treating a cruel person so is misguided, and kindness of that disguised kind is actually cruelty. A person who is able but ignores the sins of enemies and protects them is indifferent to the virtuous, and those who should be protected quickly meet disaster. Would anyone try to protect a snake while he is in its mouth? A person who sees a sin being committed and ignores it is really being cruel. So kindness is not always desirable. What is always praised is doing what is fitting.

In truth, faults like attachment do exist in anyone with a form, but they always belong to the images and not to Shiva. Copper placed in a fire turns dark, but because of its contact with fire this is not counted as a fault in the fire. When something impure is put in a fire, the fire does not become impure; indeed some impure things become pure on contact with it. In the same way Shiva does not become impure by being in contact with selves that need purifying; those that can be purified become pure on contact with him. When iron is put in the fire it is the fire that burns, not the iron. The prosperity and lordship of selves in images belong to Ishvara, not the images. It is the fire that blazes up, not the wood. Becoming coal belongs to the wood, not to the fire. In this way Shiva in this world is worshipped in images made of wood, stone or clay, but these do not truly show Shiva's nature. Friendliness and other qualities are minor and have their own kinds of working. In those who have them, such qualities can lead to good but also to evil, since through them one may favour those who lack qualities. The qualities in Shiva's conduct are neither good nor bad. The quality of showing favour is not counted by the learned as minor. By Shiva's command one can be freed from samsara; is that not beneficial? When his command leads to something beneficial, that benefit is an act of favour. One who favours everyone must set everyone to what is good for them. The word benevolent is said to mean the same as showing favour. In ensuring what is good, Shiva is benevolent to all. He is always occupied with what is good for the sentient and the insentient. But, held back by their own natures, they do not always receive it. The sun spreads its rays equally over all lotuses so that they may open, but limited by their own natures not all bloom equally. Nature leads to destiny, and destiny is the cause. However hard one tries, innate nature cannot be destroyed. Placed in fire, gold melts but coal does not. In the same way Shiva frees those whose impurities have ripened, not others. So what happens is not decided by the being alone. Yet the true doer is subject to no such notions, and in that sense he is self-ruling.

Shiva's own nature is always bright and he favours all. But whatever is called a jivatman is stained by its own nature. Otherwise, why do they wander in samsara and not merge into Shiva? Bound by karma and maya, why do even the learned wander in samsara? The causes of these attachments do not lie in Shiva. The impurities arise from the selves themselves and from nowhere else. If the cause were external, why would destinies differ? The reason is differences in individual nature. The origin of the jivatman is the same, yet some are free and others bound. Among the bound, some dissolve and others are entitled to enjoyment. There are differences in knowledge and prosperity. Some merge into the embodied form of his self; others can perceive him and approach him.

Among those who merge into the embodied form of his self, some become Shivas and stand at the top of the different paths, Maheshvaras stand in the middle and Rudras toward the bottom. The supreme cause lets three kinds of maya appear. Some selves are below maya, some in the middle of it, and some above maya, such as Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshvara. Some Vasus also take refuge with the paramatman. Some are in the region of the antaratman, some in that of the atman. Some Shivas are in the shantyatita region, some Maheshvaras in the shanti region. The Rudras are in the vidya region, the Vishnus in the pratishtha region, and the selves who are Brahmas or are born from Brahma's limbs are in the nivritti region. There are eight main classes of gods. Humans are in the middle. There are five kinds of lower species, birds and the rest, fourteen kinds of species in all. Being higher or lower is called the impurity of association with samsara. When it is absent and earlier deeds have ripened, one is freed. The degree to which impurities have ripened is the cause of samsara. When undigested, people go steadily downward, and when digested, steadily upward. The selves of Pashus have three degrees of impurity: one, two or three. Those with one impurity go upward, those with two are middling, and those with three are inferior. They are ranked in this progressive order. Those with three impurities are presided over by those with two, those with two by those with one, and so on. The differences in the universe were devised in this way. Shiva presides over everyone, whether with one, two or three impurities. Though Shiva himself has no impurity, he presides over them. In the same way there are those who are not Rudras, but Rudra presides over them. There is a great expanse ending with the cosmic egg, and Shatarudra presides over it. In order, space up to Maya is overseen in every direction by lords of the immortals no longer than a thumb. Heaven, up to Mahamaya, is overseen by the lords of the worlds. They stand within those paths but need not take them. So there are those who hold positions in heaven, sky and earth. They are praised as gods and keep the vows that gods keep. In this way the three impurities ripen in their different ways. For people this is the foundation of samsara, which is like a disease, and the medicine for that disease is supreme knowledge. Shambhu is called the physician and Shiva the supreme cause.

Shiva is able to free the Pashus from misery. Why does he subject them to unhappiness? One need not worry over this. It is certain that everything in samsara involves misery. How can unhappiness turn to happiness? The answer depends on innate nature and nothing else. When a sick person recovers, the cause is the physician, not the medicine. When someone is ill, the physician decides what medicine to apply and makes him well. In the same way Pashus are miserable because of their own natures and the impurities in them. Shiva frees them from misery by teaching them the right medicine. The physician is not responsible for the disease. Shiva is only the cause behind samsara in the sense that one might think of blaming him because of differences. If misery comes from one's innate nature, how can one say Shiva is the cause? People have impurities by nature and therefore must suffer in samsara. The reason for being in samsara is impurities, maya and lack of consciousness. Shiva has not brought this about himself, though his presence is the cause. Near a magnet that draws iron, iron filings begin to move. In the same way Shiva's presence causes the movement; one cannot do anything about it without nearness to the cause of existence. Shiva presides over the universe but is always unknown. Nothing in the world functions without Shiva. He prompts everything here, yet he himself is not deluded. Shakti is the command of his self. She faces every direction in the universe and rules. She eternally covers everything, but he is not stained by it. It has been so since the beginning. Ishvara is lord over everything, and though it results from Ishana's command, he is not stained. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded and evil-minded, and will perish through Shakti's powers. Even so, he is not stained.

Suta continued

Then an unseen voice was heard from the sky, clear in its words: "Truth is amrita, which comes from Soma." Hearing this, all the sages were amazed and delighted, and all their doubts were gone. They bowed before lord Pavana. Pavana had dispelled all the sages' doubts, but he felt that their knowledge was not yet firmly rooted, so he spoke.

Vayu said

Knowledge is said to be of two kinds, direct and indirect. Direct knowledge is permanent and indirect knowledge is unsteady. Whatever comes through reasoning and instruction is indirect. Direct knowledge comes from following practices. It is certain that liberation cannot come through indirect knowledge. So control your senses and devote yourselves single-mindedly to the best practices.