"If people without broadness of mind promulgate new religions, even out of jealousy, even such are acceptable to our Lord". This explains, by the way, how even man-made movements are doomed to disintegration and division by two potent factors, narrowness of mind and jealousy.

God is the father of all, in every age and in every clime. He has not been partial to any one people nor to any one age nor to any one country. He has revealed Himself at all times in all countries and to all races. Nay, in every thinking and loving heart, He is revealing Himself. If there is truth anywhere, it is God's truth, and as the Rev. G. M. Cobban puts it, all truth is authoritative and inspired and all truth is from God.

"Wherever you find God, there it is our own Lord the God that is present." So it is the accepted canon of the Saiva religion that its God is the God and Father of all religions, and every religion is acceptable to Him, and that no religion should be derided or rejected as false.

Of course, it is an essential requisite and condition of all religions that they reveal a desire to reach the goal, or to climb to the top, a desire after truth and righteousness, a desire for a higher life. If this condition is fulfilled, it does not matter whether they are theistic or atheistic systems, God-made or man-made. The searcher after truth is sure to proceed onward and onward, till he one-day reaches the goal. It is in this sense, one of our Tamil Saints, St. Appar, who before his conversion was a Jain, says that he never ceased worshipping Siva any time with water and flowers, water representing purity and sincerity, and flowers love.

Having made this preliminary statement, I may now be allowed to compare Saivaism with some only of the world religions of to day. Among them, the first that claims our attention is Buddhism. It has two forms, northern and southern. Northern Buddhism, if not in origin, had assumed "a Saivite form in its final shape, The famous Lipika symbol traced in the pages of the Secret Doctrine, by Madame Blavatsky is nothing but the Siva Linga. There are stories scattered about in the pages of the Bhuddhist Scriptures that it was Siva himself who taught the Buddhist Religion, just as Tulasi Das makes Siva communicate the narrative of Rama's life to Goddess-Uma, and just as it is believed that it is Lord Visva-nath that communicates Ramataraka-mantra to every one dying in Benares. I, however, believe that the southern form, deprived of its more dogmatic teaching of anatma etc, is the true form, which is of greater value to us. Of course, even Oriental Scholars have pointed it to us that Buddha was a Hindu, a Hindu of Hindus and the best of Hindus. His positive teach- I ing emphasising the importance of moral greatness was already in Hinduism and formed part of it. And yet Buddhism was of great value then and is of value for all time to come.

In our search after man and God, and in putting on cloaks of holiness and piety, and in indulging in all sorts of ceremonials, we are apt to neglect and ignore one part of our duty, which is, after all the foundation of all religions. In our desire for religious purity, we are apt to neglect moral purity as though that were a minor matter. But as our religion teaches us, it is an absolute sine qua non. The gulf between man and God cannot be crossed unless moral purity is attained. Of the importance of this Sakya Gautama reminded us, by his great personality and his teaching. We require such reminders every day. He is said to have incarnated several times, but even to-day is ripe for a fresh incarnation of him, in the troublous time we are passing through. For what is this new spirit that is said to be leavening us and creating all this unrest and all the misery in its train ? This spirit is the spirit of Mammon, the materialism of the West, which is dazzling our eyes and captivating our minds. The West stands to us for untold wealth, untold power and untold enjoyment. This new spirit is the desire to share in the wealth, power and enjoyment. But what does the story of Sakya Gautama teach us? He was not a pauper who was turned into a sannyasi as most of the modern-day holy-men are manufactured.

He was the heir to the throne of a great Empire. He was in the prime of life and manhood, and in the enjoyment of all that wealth and luxury could bring. Yet he turned from them all, by seeing a few instances of death. He feared death and yet he was not a moral coward. He would have been glad to die if that had ended all. He feared death simply because to him, it simply spelled another birth. As his Tamil Prototype puts it, "Death is like sleep and birth is but the awakening." Our holy men have always desired to die but prayed to be saved from re-birth. It was the great cycle of births and deaths that was feared. This birth is spoken of as the great ocean of birth. He believed in the law of Karma which is at the same time the foundation of all Hindu theistic Systems. This cycle of the law is the wheel or circle, which is the chief symbol of Buddhism. Proceeding a step further, he enquired as to the cause of this birth and death. It was the desire for enjoyment, the thirst after power and pelf, Tanha; as the author of the Sacred Kural puts it, "It is the desire that is the seed of birth at all times and for all mankind." It was this desire in its two forms - desire of good things (Kama) and avoidance of bad things (Krodha) in the train of ignorance - that is the cause of all Karma, all our tin and sorrow, our birth and death.

If we can cut off this desire we can cut off the seed of birth and become deathless and attain Nirvana.

" Desire and aversion and ignorance, their name destroyed, disease is gone." (Kural. 360).

We are quoting these texts from the sacred Kural of Tiruvalluvar, the sage of Mylapur who is claimed as an orthodox Saiva and is worshipped as such, just to show how far the two systems proceed together. Kashi is claimed by all Saivites as the true burning ground as distinguished from all other burning grounds, and the meaning is this. Where we ordinarily die and are burnt, we simply sow the seeds of a fresh birth. It becomes a new planting ground merely. The true shmashana will be where we will be burnt up truly and really without a chance of rebirth. There is real annihilation as is intended by the word Nirvana, but there is deathlessness also. What is it that' dies and that which does not die? It is man's individuality, the "I-ness", the egoism that is formed of Karma, the shadow that always dogs his foot-steps, the bundle of his desires, passions and numerous enjoyments, the tree of knowledge of good and evil; it is this that is annihilated. What is not destroyed and, by the annihilation of the former, becomes freed of its fetters and becomes immortal, is the real spirit, the soul or atma (the tree of life). Buddha would not postulate the other side of death, the real annihilation. Because he thought it only complicated matters.