शिवज्ञानबोध (मेय्कण्डार - शैव सिद्धान्त का आधारभूत दार्शनिक सूत्र ग्रन्थ)

SEVENTH SUTRA. 79
pletely engulfed and covered it up and in consequence it is the
sea and its Salt and not the Ganges and its taste that is apparent
to us. Sea is Sat and the Ganges mingling with it is Asat or
Sunyam. Again darkness is as real an experience of our sight
as day light. We speak of darkness engulfing the whole world
at night; but with the first streak of dawn, darkness has com-
pletely fled and vanished. Has it? and if so, where to? No, it
has neither gone nor fled any where nor has it become non-existent.
Darkness is present in Light and is completely absorbed in it.
The greater Glory and Power of the one subjugates or covers
the power of the other.
We have elsewhere referred to the analogy of the sunlight
and stars. The author of Sivagnana Siddhi calls this ‘முனைத்-
திடாமை’ which is explained to mean, that God cannot distinguish
it as apart from Him as we distinguish one object from another.
Knowledge and conciousness is only relative; and in the Presence
of the Absolute, the All, there could be no relativity and no
knowledge or consciousness. Hence Sat cannot perceive Asat.
As elsewhere explained, in the subjective state, the object
vanishes. That is in pure subjective conciousness, object con-
ciousness merges, becomes indistinguishable, there is no know-
ledge of object.
2. Asat cannot perceive Sat as it cannot rise above itself in
perception and as it is itself the object of the soul. So it is
doubly distant from Sat.
3. This argument brings out the whole subject of Atma
Darsan and shows how the soul can be seen or perceived. The
soul cannot be perceived directly as this is physically and
psychologically impossible. It is by learning to distinguish
itself from other things that it can know what it really is. There
are two such things from which it has to distinguish itself, namely,
Sat and Asat. In the human condition it is one with Asat and the