The thing was clear, desire was the ultimate cause of the disease of birth and sorrow, and, if by any herculean effort, we could remove the cause, the object would attained. As such he laid great stress on Desirelessness, or becoming balanced in pleasure and pain, in siniessness and self-sacrifice; and this teaching is priceless to all and every one; and as I said, I wish even now a fresh avatar of Buddha would incarnate to carry home to every one this teaching, not only on the Holy land of his birth, but to the West also, which also sorely needs an avatar of his type, to turn them away from the thought of mere material aggrandizement.

In the scheme of salvation as framed in Saivite theology, this forms the first of the four rungs, namely Karma Samyam, (becoming balanced in pleasure and pain), the other three being Malaparipakam and Sadgurudarsanam and Sattinipadam. Before I leave this part of the subject, I wish to draw the special attention of the Convention to the existence in the Tamil language of the Sacred Kural by Saivite Sage Tiru-valluvar, who lived about 2000 years ago. It is an ethical treatise which has profoundly influenced the Tamil people for the last 2000 years, and in the words of its English translator the late Rev. Dr. G. U Pope, "it is not surpassed by any thing of the kind in any literature." The same learned doctor further remarks that "it is evident from what has been said above, we have in Southern India an ethical treatise which in a Christian point of view is nearly unexceptionable." I will quote another observation of his also before I address myself to the next subject, namely, Christianity.

"To meet thoughtful Hindus in a spirit of dogmatic antagonism or to treat them with contempt or to speak of them as the perishing heathen, is absolutely unfitting. We have even to learn something from Hinduism."

The Rev. G. M. Cobban was a missionary gentleman who was a prominent and popular figure in Madras in my College days. He was a good student of Tamil and of Saiva Siddhanta. Writing to the Contemporary Review he wrote, "First, I think, we should insist on the cordial recognition of these truths and cheerfully acknowledge their kinship to Christianity, for all truth is akin. The Hindu poet knows what to say of it. He says 'the heart is made pure by the truth.' If 1 am asked whence these truths came, I would say from heaven, from Him who is the Truth. But whether they are the direct gifts of God to the Hindus, or whether like boulders, they have drifted and travelled to India, 1 cannot tell; the evidence on this point is incomplete. If any urge that, although Hindus recognize their authority, they are un-inspired and not really authoritative, I would say truth is authoritative, because it is truth, not because it came in a particular way. And all truth is from God." He also remarks "we find much truth both in books and men, so much as to surprise the student and delight the wise Christian teacher."

These observations were all made in reference to the truths contained in Saiva and Vaishnava works in Tamil. And I have given other estimates of Saiva Siddhanta from Christian writers in my last address. The resemblance which struck them most between Christianity and Saivaism, and which I wish to emphasize here, relates to the ideal of Godhead, God's relation to man, the doctrine of Love and Grace, and the necessity for a divine teacher. I have defined the terms 'Personal and Impersonal', 'Saguna and Nirguna' in my last address and I have shown that, according to Saiva [religion, God is personal in the true acceptation of the word, according to Christian writers. God is Sat, Chit, and Ananda, Nirguna, absolute and personal at the same time. He is our Lord and Master, our heavenly Father, our intimate Friend and Beloved One. He loves us and we can love him. He understands our helplessness and is ever intent on our good, and if we only could respond to His Love which, in the words of one of our Saints, is "limitless and is ever rising and flowing over", and which, in the words of another, is "a flood brooking not its banks rushest into the cavity of my heart," our salvation would be assured. 'God is love' and every Christian missionary who knows anything of Tamil knows by heart the famous verse in St. Tirumular's Tirumantiram "Sivam and Love are different, say the fools.

No one knows that Sivam and Love are the same. When one knows that Sivam and Love are the same, then he rests in Sivam as Love."

I have urged Christians to drop the word "Saguna" (meaning clothed in the three gunas, Satva, Rajas and Tamas), and to drop their prejudice against the word Nirguna, which means non-material or Pure Intelligence and spirit. Our Idea of God is Sat-chit-ananxla, symbolised in the form of Soma-skanda (Sa-uma-skanda) and this is the same as God the father, God the mother or Holy ghost, and God the son, and I have quoted in some other place the definition of these terms from Bishop Westcott, God as pure being or spirit, God as light that links to him all humanity, and God as Love.

I have referred to the Doctrine of Grace as a special feature of Saiva Siddhanta in my last address; and in this respect also, it differs in no respect from that of the Christian Doctrine. Christian Theologians have fought over the question of desert and grace, and there is a similar divergence in Saiva Siddhanta schools also. The doctrine of Nirhetukaruna is well set forth by Saiva sages also, and all schools recognize that even where you deserve the grace, it is God that helps you to deserve it. Our Skanda is Kumara Skanda, son of God, the first teacher and Parama Guru, and I have shown that unless God comes down to us as the son of man, our redemption is not possible.; Christianity speaks of only one revelation for all time to come/ But in the Saiva Siddhanta, God reveals Himself as the son and Guru to each in his own fulness of time.

What repels most Christians in Hinduism is its idealism and Pantheism. But in the manner in which 'advaitcC is defined by the Saivite school and hence called Suddha Advaita Siddhanta, the doctrine is without any reproach. "Thou art not aught in the universe; Naught is there save Thou; (God) Who can know Thee?' is our postulate. We distinguish clearly between the plane of God, the plane of man and the plane of the universe., just in the same way as Professor Henry Drummond does, and we postulate a unity at the same time. 'God is all and not all' is one of our axioms. Even in regard to the doctrine of atonement, there is considerable agreement. We equally say with Christians, that where we can do His will, atoning ourselves with God, then He takes upon Himself all our burdens, and all our burdens fall off. (Vide Sivjnanabodham, Sutra, 10). As man falls away from God, by not doing His Will, so the final act of Sanctification consists in doing His will, and the moment we do this, we will be re-united to our Father in Heaven. I only hope that the day', the Christian world realizes the beauty of Saiva Siddhanta in all its aspects, much of the prejudice against Hinduism will fall off, and we will, be united to each other in bonds of fraternal love as, we should be, children of the same Father. One learned Jesuit father blessed us after hearing of our idea of Sivam as Love, saying, 'Yes, this is the truth and I wish God would give you grace to preach it."