Talk:Purāṇa:The One as Many
By Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swami
The one and only Paramātman is revealed as so many different deities. If one person develops a great liking for a certain deity, another chooses to have a liking for some other. To make a man a confirmed devotee of the form in which he likes to adore the Lord, the Paramātman on occasion diminishes himself in his other forms.
Tirukaṇḍiyūr is in Tañjāvūr district, Tamil Nadu. In the temple here Śiva is seen to be a lesser god than Viṣṇu. He once plucked off one of Brahmās heads, became thus the victim of a curse and was freed from it through the grace of Viṣṇu. In the same district is Tiruvīḻimalai where it is Viṣṇu who is seen to be a lesser god than Śiva. Reciting the Śiva-Sahasranāma (The One Thousand Names of Śiva), Viṣṇu offers lotuses at the feet of Śiva. When he is nearing the end of his worship he finds that he is short of one lotus. What does he do now? Viṣṇu, the lotus-eyed, digs out one of his own eyes and offers it at the feet of Śiva. The latter is pleased and gives him the cakra or discus. Śiva is called here Netrārpaṇeśvara (Śiva to whom an eye has been offered); at Tirukaṇḍiyūr Viṣṇu is Hara-śāpa-vimocana (one who freed Śiva from a curse).
When we listen to the story of Tirukaṇḍiyūr we learn that Viṣṇu is a god of great compassion who frees his devotees from the most terrible of curses. Similarly, from the Tiruvīḻimalai story we realise that no sacrifice is too great for a devotee—Viṣṇu offers one of his own eyes to the god he worships, that is Śiva. The question here is not who is the greater of the two, Śiva or Viṣṇu.
In the old days we used to have the lanterns in our homes. There were lanterns with glass on all the four sides—or three sides. Let us take the latter type. The wick inside the glass is lighted. The three sides made of glass are painted in three different colours [or only two sides are painted]. The light burning inside will be seen to be a different colour from each side. We may take these three sides to represent creation, protection and dissolution, the three functions performed by the Paramātman. It is the one Light that is responsible for all the three, like the wick burning inside the lamp with the three sides.
One side of the lantern, let us assume, is painted red. It symbolises creation. If we remove red from the pure light of the spectrum, the other six colours also will be separated. This is what is meant by the one becoming the many of creation. Brahmā, the Creator, is said to be red in colour.
Another side of the lantern is painted blue. The first and last colours of the spectrum are violet and red. The beginning is red (or infrared) and the end violet (or ultraviolet). Mahāviṣṇu, during the very act of sustaining all creation, demonstrates through jñāna that this world is not the whole self-fulfilling truth but the disguise of the Paramātman, his sport. In the fire of jñāna the cosmos is charred. This is the state in which an object, without being entirely disintegrated, retains its form but loses its colour: it is like a lump of charcoal. Such an entity as the world still exists, but its own quality, Māyā, is burned out and is suffused with Viṣṇu — Sarvaṁ Viṣṇumayaṁ jagat. In Tamil Viṣṇu is called Kariyan, Nīlamēṉiyan (one who is like charcoal, one whose body is blue). Blue, black and violet are more or less similar colours. The light coming from the blue side of the lantern is Viṣṇu.
The third side of the lamp is not painted. We saw that when all is burnt in jñāna the residue is a lump of charcoal. But if this charcoal is burned further the ultimate product is ash. It has no form and is just powder or dust. Now the colour also changes from black to white. White is the colour close to pure light. All the colours are inherent in that light, which means all the cosmic functions and activities emanating from the Paramātman are made extinct, are burned out. Now the Paramātman alone remains. That is the ashes remain when everything is burnt out—that is what lasts in the end. It is indeed Parameśvara otherwise called Mahābhasma. Saṁhāra, destruction, may seem a cruel function. But what Śiva does, though seemingly cruel, is truly an act of compassion because he goes beyond destruction to unite us with the Truth. When Viṣṇu sportingly bestows jñāna on us the cosmos seems like a lump of charcoal.
Sarvaṁ Viṣṇumayaṁ jagat, we say. But now all the sport has ended and we have come to the state of supreme jñāna: there is neither sarvam nor jagat. Now it is all Śivamayaṁ. It is the one lamp that is the light of the Brahman. When it is seen through the red side of the lantern it becomes Brahmā; through the blue side it is Viṣṇu; and through the unpainted side it is Śiva.
Our great men have in the past sung of the One manifesting as three (Oruvare mūvuruvāy). There were great poets in our country who were not interested in propagating any philosophy or any system of thought—they were men possessing a broad outlook and an open mind who expressed their views freely. These poets have said that it is the same entity that is manifested as the Trimūrti (Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Maheśvara) and indeed as the 33 crore devatās. Bāṇa says that the same Object becomes three to perform three functions, sarga-sthiti-nāśa-hetave. Kālidāsa clearly states, Ekaiva mūrtirbibhidhe tridha sā (The Paramātman is One; it is this One that divides itself into three for the three different functions).
If we were divided into two schools, the one insisting that the Śaiva Purāṇas alone are authoritative among the Purāṇas and the other claiming that only the Vaiṣṇava Purāṇas are to be relied upon, we would keep quarrelling without ever being able to take a clear and dispassionate view of things. Ekaṁ sat viprāḥ bahudhā vadanti — The Truth is One. The wise speak of it by different names. There is no greater authority for us than this Vedic pronouncement. So all of us, without making any distinction between the Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava systems, must listen to the stories of all deities and be rewarded with freedom from worldly existence.
Tiruviśanallūr Ayyāvaḷ was a great man. His real name was Śrīdhara Veṅkaṭeśvara. But out of respect people referred to him as Tiruviśanallūr Ayyāvaḷ. He lived some three hundred years ago and was the senior contemporary of Bhagavannāma Bodhendra. Bodhendra propagated devotion to Rāma and Govinda, that is he taught people to sing these names of the Lord. At the same time Ayyāvaḷ spread the glory of Śiva by singing his names. Neither of the two respected any distinction between Śiva and Viṣṇu. So the two of them jointly propagated the nāma siddhānta in the Tiruviśanallūr. They had respect and affection for one another and established the doctrine that in the age of Kali repeating the names of the Lord (nāma-japa) is the sovereign remedy for all ills. Whenever a bhajana is held obeisance is paid to these two (first Bodhendra and then Ayyāvaḷ) before singing the praises of the deities.
During a śrāddha ceremony Ayyāvaḷ fed an untouchable. The village headman gave the ruling that he had to bathe in the Gaṅgā in expiation. Ayyāvaḷ made the sacred river rise in the well in the backyard of his house. This story is well known. The incident took place on the new moon of the month of Kārttikai (November-December). Even today devotees in large numbers bathe in the water of this well in the belief that it is as good as taking a dip in the holy Gaṅgā.
Ayyāvaḷ gives his own account of how Śrī Rāma broke the bow of Śiva. Svakāra pratipādita svacāpaḥ, — this is how he put it. That is Rāma broke his bow with his own hands. The story usually told is that the bow of Śiva was cracked by Nārāyaṇa and that later Nārāyaṇa who descended to earth as Rāma broke it completely. Ayyāvaḷ does not like the idea of Śiva being represented as inferior to Rāma. He does not make any distinction between Śiva and Viṣṇu and believes that Śiva is Viṣṇu and Viṣṇu is Rāma (so Śiva and Rāma are the same). Logically, in his view, the bow of Śiva is the bow of Rāma. That is why he says Rāma broke his own bow with his hands. All such acts are needed for his sport, he declares.