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

NOTE ON THE AUTHOR. xvii
publication. A few glimpses that have been obtained of the
work here and there fully justify the great expectations entertain-
ed of it as a work of very rare merit. Sivagnana Yogi has fully
followed in his dialectics the dictum laid down by the author of
Sivaprakasam that everything old is not necessarily true and
that everything new is not necessarily false. This view accounts
generally for the greater freedom of thought displayed by
Tamil Siddhantha Philosophers in the treatment of their subject
without being tied down too narrowly by any Vedic Text, &c.,
than Sanskrit writers.
In these days of boasted toleration, and the proclamation of
universal truths and universal religions from every little house
top, it will be interesting to note what an ideal of toleration and
universal religion the Siddhanta writers generally had. Says the
author of Sivagnana Siddhi, "Religions and truths as professed
in this world are various and differ from each other. If you ask,
which is then the true religion and which is the universal truth,
hear! That is an universal Religion and Truth, which without
contradicting this faith or that faith reconciles their differences
and comprises all and every faith and truth in its broad folds."
The gist of this is contained in the phrase 'எல்லாமாய் அல்லவு
மாய்' "all and not all or above all" which again is the Lakshana
of Adwaitham, as I have elsewhere explained. In India, at the
present day, certain phrases or forms of Idealism are put for-
ward as expressing universal Truth and a large body of ignorant
and credulous people are misled by it. Idealism is being exploded
and discredited in Europe, and as M. Barth truly observes, Idealism
when pushed to its logical conclusions leads one to Nihilism.
The Siddhanta Sastras are 14 in number. The first is Siva-
gnana Botham of Meikanda Deva; and two works of Arulnanthi
Sivachariar I have already mentioned. Another of Meikanda
Deva's pupils by name Manavasakam Kandanthar composed a
treatise called 'Unmai Vilakkam' 'Light of truth' and this little
c