Indian Philosophy v2.c27.s2.7

v2.c27.s2.7

To the Lord (pati) belong the paśu, literally cattle, the infinite host of souls. He is not their creator, since they are eternal. The soul is distinct from the body, which is an unconscious object of experience (bhogya). Its presence is evidenced from the facts of memory and recognition. It is an omnipresent, constant, conscious actor. It is the abode of the eternal and omnipresent citśakti.¹ It has consciousness (caitanyam), whose essence lies in the act of seeing (dṛkkriyārūpam). According to *Sivajñānasiddhiyār*, the soul is distinct from the gross body as well as the subtle, though united to them, and it has the functions of desire, thought and action (icchājñānakriyā).² It becomes one with the thing in which it dwells for the time being. In the world of saṃsāra it concentrates on worldly things, while in the state of release it centres its consciousness on God. During pralaya, the souls devoid of embodiment rest as powers and energies in the great Śiva. The number of souls cannot be increased or decreased. As more souls get released the embodied ones become reduced in number. Consciousness is perfectly manifested in the liberated, while it is obscured in the unliberated. The individual souls are of three classes, according as they are subject to the three, two or one of the impurities.³ The earth and the rest are also the effects of God's creation. They are unconscious and serve the purposes of the souls.