The text of St. Meykanda Deva is that

"God is Chit because He is omnipresent" and unless He is pure Intelligence, He cannot be omnipresent. (See for further explanation, 2nd Sutra Sivajnanabotham, English edition page 11).

Our Saint Pattinattar gives a most elaborate description in the following Agaval -

O Thou Dweller in Vorri, which beams

As the face of the sea-girt Earth!

Who owns Thy Form beyond compare?

The Lightning's flash Thy locks do show,

The teeming Earth Thy Head does form.

The Sun and Moon, and Fire, these three,

Are Eyes that light Thy Divine Face.

Thy cool bright wreaths are the countless stars.

The sky where in the gods do dwell

Thy broad Chest forms; The Eight quarters,

Thy shoulders strong. The broad sea Thy Vest.

Thy Organ, Earth; Feet the worlds below.

The flowing wind Thy constant breath,

The flawless sounds are all Thy words.

The faultless wisdom that is together found

In Gods and Men is all Thy own.

The teeming world lives and develops

Vanishes and reappears, These Thy acts.

The world, in life or death, awake,

Or asleep, does show Thy Nature true.

With these Thy Form, Thy one True spirit

Dual becomes; clothed in Gunas three,

Art born as four; Hast senses five,

The six Religions, and seven worlds

Dost become and art the Eight Gods.

And thus for ages and ages progressing

Whatever Thou unitest with

That Thou dost sure become.

The following is the favourite quotation from Tiruvachakam.

Earth, water, air, fire, sky, the Sun and Moon, The sentient man, these eight forms He pervades

The seven worlds, ten quarters, He the One, And Many, He stands, so, let us sing.

Saint Tayumanavar selects the following verse from St. Appar's Devaram for special praise in his

As earth, fire, water, air and Ejaman

As moon, the sun and space, as Ashta Murti,

As goodness and evil, as male and female,

Himself the Form of every form,

As yesterday and to-day and to-morrow,

My Lord with the braided hair stands Supreme.

The following verse of St. Appar also explains how this Being who is the greatest of the great is so small also, as to be confined in ourselves.

As Ashta Murti, He performs functions

He, my Father and God, possessed of eight attributes

He, the Ashta Murti is my Lord and Master

He, the Ashta Murti is confined in me.

Saint Jnana Sambanda has the following verse.

As Earth, Water, the Sun and Moon and Sky. The flowing Wind, bright Fire and Hotri' He stands. Sirapuram, washed by the scented waters of Kottar They who praise, they will suffer no pain.

And St. Tayumanavar himself pertinently asks why when the earth, air etc. are spoken of by the Vedas as God Himself, he should not himself be spoken of as God.

Siva is also called Digvasas, Digambara, Nirvani, and He dances in Chitambara, and His person and limbs, as we have seen, represent each an element or portion of the universe. And this description of Him, we notice even from the Rig Veda downwards. The translator of Mahabharata frequently remarks that Siva is identified in those passages as the Supreme Brahman, but this identification has been going on ever since the very beginning. We can speak of an identification only when there is difference orginally. Would it not therefore be more proper to say that the words Siva and Rudra are merely the names, and His Form, the Form, of the supreme Brahman?

We cannot here omit to note the fact also that there are temples in India in which God (Siva) is worshipped in one or other, of these eight forms.

As Earth, He is worshipped in Kanchi (Conjeeveram,) as Water, in Jambukesvaram (Trichinopoly); as Air in Kalahasti; as Fire in Tiruvannamalai; as Akas, in Chidambara; as Sun, when every one performs Surya Namaskaram;* as Moon, in Somnath; as Pasu or Atma, in Pasupati Temple in Nepaul.

*My grandmother is even now, in her extreme old age, very regular in her Surya Namaskaram but she speaks of Him as 'Siva Surya-Kanne Atmanam aranim kritva, pranavamcha Uttararanim Jnana nirmathanabhyasath, pasam dahatipanditah.

An Upanishat Text

In our Tamil edition was appearing an excellent translation of Kaivalyopanishat by that great Tamil and Sanskrit Scholar of Jaffna, Srimath Senthinathier, who is now staying in Benares. His commentary is a most valuable one, tracing as it does the passages in Kaivalyopanishat to similar passages in various other Upanishats. This Upanishat is by some called a sectarian and a modern one. This we deny, and we will take some other fuller opportunity to expound our views on the age of the Upanishats. At least this is older than the time of Sri Sankara who includes it among the Pancharudram which he has commented on. The Mantra, "Atmanam aranim kritva, pranavamcha uttararanim Jnana nirmathanabhyasath, pasam dahati pandithah," following as it does Mantra 13 and 14, Part I. Svetasvatara Upanishat, and with Mantra 11, above would completely demolish the theory of that talented lady Mrs. Besant, that the Isvara evolves, and the sole purpose of His so evolving, is that He make Himself manifest from His unmanifest condition like butter from cream, fire from sticks etc.