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

PREFACE.
Before concluding, I cannot resist the temptation of
indulging in one more extract from the valuable article of
the Rev. G. M. Cobban, the appropriateness of which the
readers will easily perceive.
“ I once spent a few days with a fakir on his way to
Rameswaram as a pilgrim. We travelled together and have
ing come to be friends, he told me how he had spent four
years in the jungle as the disciple of a celebrated religious
teacher (Guru) and Saint. ‘And what did he teach you
during your first year,’ I asked. ‘The Sacredness of truth,’
was the reply. ‘How did he teach it?’ By teaching me
nothing during the year. He was testing me to see if I
was worthy to receive the truth.’ ‘And what did he teach
you in the succeeding years.’ ‘He spoke to me seldom,
and taught me in all twelve Sanskrit Slokas.’ (24 lines).
The instruments of the disciples culture were few and
simple, and its area small. Half a page of Sanskrit does
not seem an exhaustive College Course. But the slokas
stretched to infinity as the student gazed on them with the
inner eye, and in a narrow space, and on the strong food of
this small curriculam, he had grown to be an acute and
strong thinker. But had he failed to show himself worthy
to receive the truth, the Guru would not have taught him.”
The twelve slokas, the Hindu fakir referred to may
or may not be the twelve Sutras of Sivagnanabotha, but
nevertheless, the above remarks are equally appropriate.
Compare the words of Thayumanavar in praise of the
author of Sivagnana Siddhi,
“ பாதிவிருத் தத்தாலிப் பார்விருத்த மாகவுண்மை,
சாதித்தார் பொன்னடியைத் தான் பணிவ தெந்நாளோ.”