Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Minor Religious Systems v2.c13.348.4

v2.c13.348.4

II, 2, 38 states that according to his predecessors a certain branch of the philosophy based on the sacred texts revealed by Śiva (Agamas) held Śiva to be only the efficient cause of the world. This must be a reference to the Śaiva school which, as we have already stated, was a dualistic or pluralistic school. The Vāyavīyasaṃhitā according to him states that Śakti, or power, first originates from Śiva, thence Māyā, thence Avyakta (I, 7, 3). By Māyā is to be understood the wonderful creative power of Śiva, as is evident from the following verse 4; and Avyakta means the Pradhāna, as appears from that verse as well as verse 7. He gives another verse which sets forth that everything from the Śakti to the earth is produced from the essence of Śiva, so that Śiva through the Śakti is both the efficient and the constituent cause of the world. This Śakti is brought in by those who hold creation to be the development of Śiva, while it is not wanted for those Śaiva philosophers who would keep the creative principle Māyā or Pradhāna as distinct from Śiva and undergoing independent development. Śrīkaṇṭha explains the expression ‘Śiva alone existed’ occurring in ŚU. IV, 18, under I, 4, 27, by ‘Śiva, with whom the Śakti (the power) in the form of the animate and the inanimate world was united, alone existed so as to form one entity’, so that he here understands Śiva as possessed of the Śakti to be the constituent cause. In this respect his doctrine is similar to that of Nimbārka.