Coming to the question of God being personal or impersonal, we are not quite sure in what sense our Indian writers use these words, but they mostly take it as meaning Saguna and Nirguna. There is some difference of opinion as regards the connotation of the words among European writers. Some use it as implying individuality and limitation; others use it as not meaning individuality, and this is the more prevalent and cultured opinion. We take the following definitions from a vocabulary of Philosophy..

Person: A being intelligent and free, every spiritual and moral agent, every cause which is in possession of responsibility and consciousness, is a person. In this sense, God considered as a creating cause is a person.

"The intimate relation of God, as Being, to all His attributes and to all His essence, constitutes the Divine Personality; which for God is His entire Being. God only exists for Himself, in a manner infinite and absolute. God has relation entirely to Himself; for there is no being out of Him to which he can have relation. His whole essence is for Himself and this relation is altogether internal. The. divine consciousness or personality embraces all that is in God, all of which He is the reason. "Person as applied to Deity, expresses the definite and Certain truth that God is a living being, and not a dead material energy."

Emerson says that personality signifies true being (Sat) both concrete and spiritual. It alone is original being. It is not limited. It is that universal element that pervades every human soul and which is at once its continent and fount of being. Distinction from others and limitation by them results from individuality (Ahankara or Anava) not personality (Sat). Personality pertains to the substance of the soul, and individuality to its form. Another Christian writer (Rev. J. Iverach) points out that the absolute and unconditioned Being is Personal is not a contradiction in terms, such as a round square, but that it will be true as when we say a white or crimson square. "When we speak of the absolute, we speak of it as a predicate of pure being; we simply mean that the Absolute Personal Being is and must be self-conscious, rational and ethical, must answer to the idea of spirit. Why may not the Absolute Being be self-conscious? To deny this to Him would be to deny to Him one of the perfections which even finite beings can possess."

St. Meykandan and St. Tirumular had stated the same question long ago, as we had shown. This self-consciousness,

as we have shown above, is not to be confounded with the limitedof the

Soul

As it is, Personality clearly means Sat and Chit, and nei-ther Saguna nor Nirguna. Personality is opposed to Achit or

Jada or irrational matter and relates to the substance, Saguna and Nirguna to the form, either as individual or otherwise - God can never become individualised as man, woman or brute, the limitation of the latter class of beings arising from its union with matter or Guna (Saguna). From this view, impersonal would clearly mean irrational, unintelligent and material, and we don't believe any Indian writer would desire to use this word in relation to the Deity, if they only understood its signification.

From the statement that God is Nirguna and not Saguna, it follows that God can neither have birth nor death. This is one of the central doctrines of Saiva Slddhanta, and in this .respect it differs from all the existing forms of faith, whether Hindu or otherwise, except, perhaps, Muhammadanism and the Unitarian form of Christianity.

"The unborn, with the braided hair, supreme grace, the undying, bestowing bliss on all, O thou worship! If worshipped, thy Maya will vanish without doubt." (Saint Tirumular).

Of course, it must stand to reason that our soul itself is neither born nor can it die. What is born or what dies is the material body formed of Maya or Guna associated with it from the beginning. These repeated births and deaths occur on account of the peculiar link subsisting between the soul and matter; and, therefore, the souls comprising all Sakalars are called Saguna. This same peculiar link does not subsist between God and matter, and hence, He is Nirguna. So it is, God can neither be born in the womb nor die. This peculiar doctrine of Saiva Siddhanta is what should elevate it so the highest rank of philosophy; and the latest discoveries in science could not shake its foundation.

One other feature of Saiva Siddhanta, in regard to the Godhead, we will mention, before we close this paper. And that is, that the supreme Brahman of this school called Siva or Sivam is not to be confounded with the Hindu Trinity. God is peculiarly denoted by the words Sivam, Sankara, Sambhu, Rudra (he who removes sorrow), as they express the most spiritual nature of God as Love and All-beneficent. And that this is no sectarian conception of the Deity, and that the God of the Saiva Siddhantis is the universal God of all the nations and all reli-gions is finally brought out by St. Arulnandi Sivachariyar in his very first verse in 'Sivajnana Siddhiyar.'

"Let me place on my head the feet of Siva who stands as the goal of each of the six forms of religion, and who stands in the various forms conceived of by the various internal schools of Saiva faith, and yet stands beyond the conception of all Vedas and Agamas, and fills all intelligences with His love, and becomes my Heavenly Father and Mother and fills one and all inseparably."

To sum up, according to the true Vedanta Siddhanta Philosophy, God is Sat,Chit, Ananda, not material nor enveloped in master, Nirguua and Personal, ever blissful and All Love, and all His acts such as creation, etc, are prompted by such Love. He is neither He, She nor It, nor has He any material Rupa or Arupa, and He can reveal His grace and majesty to those who love Him. He cannot be born nor can He die, and as such, indeed, He is the Pure and Absolute and Infinite Being, able to lift up humanity wallowing in the bonds of mala, maya, and karma. To know Him as our true Heavently Father and Mo-ther and love Him as such is the only panacea for all the evils of erring mankind.