SIVA THE ABSOLUTE
Everything that we see undergoes change. It has an origin, existence and decay. The physical bodies, mental and psychological instruments, worldly things and the universe experience these changes. For any change to occur force or energy is required.
While experiencing these changes, man, at times, has realised a subtle power or entity which causes these changes but does not change by itself . This must be an intelligent and all powerful Being. It is called God.
Various religions call God by various names. Saiva religion refer to Him as SIVA or SIVAM.
Perfect Being
The religion of Saivam derived its name from Sivam. Sivam means the auspicious One or the perfect Being. He is the ultimate of all virtues, excellence in love, compassion, wisdom, etc., He is the Reality Absolute.
The Tamil equivalent of God is Kadavul. This is made up of two syllabes, kada and ul meaning that which is outside and inside. Thus He permeates everything including space. He is all pervasive and ominipresent.
Irai is another Tamil name for God, suggesting that He is our lord or king. In the philosophical term, He is called Pathi meaning lord or head. Pasu is the name for soul which has its limitation. God Siva is, therefore, called Pasupathi the lord of the souls. Brahman and Parabrahmam are names of Siva in Sanskrit.
The Saiva Tamils who realised Him as the perfect being, worshipped Him as Siva of the Tamil Land. At the same time they consider Him as the God of all lands. St. Manikkavasagar explains this in his Thiruvasagam lines as follows.
Praise to Siva of the Southern Land
Praise to God of every land.
Attributes
Our capabilities are impaired by the subtle entity called Anavam. It is the source of our ego and ignorance and associated with the soul as malam or impurity. Siva is free of such malam and is referred to as Nirmalam, Ninmalan or Nimalan.
We have various attributes or qualities(gunas) which make up our pyche. Siva has no such attributes and hence is called Nirgunan(one without gunas). However the religious texts describe Siva with eight attributes. These are qualities known to the human mind. This helps us to understand Him and perceive Him as a personal God. Also, it becomes easy for the mind to contemplate on Him.
Siva the Absolute is formless. He is wisdom personified. His power or Sakthy is His Grace or Arul. He is called Param and his Sakthy is called Parai or Parasakthy. Like sun and its light, Siva and His Sakthy are inseperable. They are akin to the potential and kinetic state of one and the same thing.
In His true form, Siva is Satchidhananda(Sat-Chit-Ananda). Sat means One in existence(truth). In Saiva philosophy Sat is changeless and does not undergo transformation. Chit is knowledge or Wisdom. Ananda is bliss. Siva is an embodment of Truth, perfect Wisdom and Bliss. He is beyond sense perception. Perception of a different kind is required to see Him. This will come only through His Grace which descends on us when we are spiritually matured. The knowledge required to see Him is called Pathijnanam.
Act of Siva
Due to His Grace or unlimited love, Siva helps the souls to evolve from their bonded state to freedom and to enjoy divine bliss. He causes creation, preservation and dissolution to be performed by Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra.
Creation involves physical bodies, mental and psychological faculties and wordly things. By preservation He helps the souls to gain experience and knowledge during a particular period in this world. By disolution those which were created get transformed into Maya. Birth and death, according to Saiva philosophy, are only transformation from one state to another, from the fine to the gross(from maya to its products) and vice versa.
To these three-fold activities, obscuration and confirment of Grace are added and described as five-fold activities. In this, preservation includes obscuration and dissoltion includes confirment of His Grace.
Siva, the Absolute, in His state of performing the above functions, is called Pathi. Here, we should remember that Siva is not one of the Trimurtys ( Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra ) who belong to Anubksa or group of spiritually evolved souls.
Form and Formless
According to Saivism, Siva takes three types of bodies or forms. In his intrinsie state, He is formless. It is called Arupa state. Out of his immense love or Grace for the souls, He takes forms. Thus is the Rupa state. In between these two states is the 'formless-form' called 'Aruparupa' form. In Saiva Siddhanta philosophy, in His formless state He is called Sivam. In his 'formless-form' state He is called Sathasivam. In His state with form He is called Maheswaran.
Out of these three forms, Siva takes nine manifestations for performing His activity. Sivajanasiddhiyar refer to them collectively as navam tharu pethm. They are Sivam, Sakthi, Natham and Vindu of arupa form, Sadasivam of Aruparupa form and Maheswara, Rudra, Vishnu and Brahma of rupa form.
Sivalingam is symbolic of Sathasivam. In His Maheswara state Siva takes twenty five manifested forms called Sivamurthams. These forms are seen by the Rishi's in their innere vision and described in Saiva Agamas. Unlike human forms, they are formed by the attributes of Siva's Grace to help us in our contemplation, worship and meditation. In whatever form we worship the God, it is Siva with his Sakthy who confers good to us.