Frequently Asked Questions - English

Part 2


[The readers are welcome to raise questions either in English or Tamil. Dr.K.Loganathan will answer them.]

Question 1 (Miss Rama Letchumanan, Malaysia)

What's New

If what are disclosed in dreams become actual, how long does it take to be so?


First of all I must tell you that my own research into dreams indicate that while many dreams are predictive of the future, NOT all dreams are so. Dreams are a species of language through which the unconscious are disclosed to us. The dream processes seem to underly our normal thought processes. We have to interpret these dreams appropriately in order to understand them, and this involves relating them to what actually happens to us. They are just as complex in their function as the ordinary language in everyday life. Sometimes we request, sometimes we advise and sometimes we inform and so forth. These are called SPEECH ACTS by modern linguists. In line with this, we can say that DREAMS are speech acts of Siva, communications form within our own UNCONSCIOUS to help us to lead the RIGHT LIFE. In this context some dreams tell us what will be the future consequences of some actions that we begin to embark upon. The actions we effect seem to have a chainlike connections with the future. My research indicate that most of such dreams become true in this manner within about two years. But I must tell you that some dreams chart out in a nutshell the whole course of our life and hence may take the whole life before we can verify its predictive validity.

Question 2 (Miss Anjali Devi Nadarajan, Malaysia)

What's New

We are what we are through the Grace of God. If a person has attained Sivanjaanam, it is God's Will. Similarly if a person remains in ignorance, it is also God's Will. If an individual is unable to embark on a journey of self-discovery, or to persist in the pursuit of self-illumination, it is also God's Will. Please comment.


This is the defeatist and fatalistic attitude so characteristic of so many Saivites to-day, one of the reasons why they have declined and Saivism is almost dead. We must remember that among the entities that are anaathi, i.e. unoriginated we have in addition to the pacu, the psychic entities, Pathi the Supreme BEING also Anavam the Dark stuff that continuously strives to ensnare the pacus and bring about death and miseries. As Thirumuular has already explained only by approaching Siva, the Supreme BEING that we can distance ourselves from the death and misery bringing Anavam. It is within our CHOICE to near HIM or distance ourselves from HIM. When we choose to be away from SIVA saying that it is HIS will, it only shows that we are rationalising and not reasoning. SIVA forever attracts or pulls every creature unto Himself. But so does Anavam. We are caught between these two contradictory pulls. When we do not try to be near Siva, it only shows that we are submitting our selves to the pulls of Anavam. This is FALLING and not living a meaningful life. Even at this point Siva doesn't abandon us. He discloses pains and miseries, deathlike experiences in order to indicate to us that we are falling. Even at this point if we do not listen to HIM, of course death will be a reality and being reborn again and again will continue. We must realise that life is an opportunity to LEARN and thereby destroy the Darkess of Ignorance already within us. If we choose not assert ourselves and learn, rationalising it by various means, we are the losers. Misery after misery will follow and eventually because of sheer pain we will wakeup to the real meaning of life and seek after Sivanjaanam.


Question 3 ("Sridhar, K.R.(Shelton) KRnguSridhar@tvratings.com")

What's New

Is 'Karma Yoga', which is one of the main ideals of modern Hinduism as propounded by the Bhagavat Gita, prescribed in Saiva Siddhanta ? One reference to karma yoga that I have heard is the famous 'Avvinaikku Ivvinayay .... Thiruneelagandam' thevaram by Thirugnanasambandar. Are there other references?

Sorry I couldn't reply you immediately. Glad to hear you visit our Home Page and appreciate it. I am particularly happy that you read the books The Metaphysica Universalis of Meykandar and the Njaanamirtha Kattalai. With respect to your question you must realize that Bagavat Gita presupposes Samkhya system of philosophy and hence they can talk only in terms of gunas. The yoga is explained as activities concerned with bringing forth the Satvika guna. The concept of Niskama Karma which is central to it is not available in exactly the same form but rather in the form of Thondu, selfless service to the people. The notion of Thondu presupposes Love and hence doing without seeking any returns. Only in this way you will be able to develop LOVE as the central principle of life. The notion of LOVE as ARUL and Anbe Sivam and so forth are not available in Bagavat Gita because at that time only Samkya System of philosophy was available for interpreting the religious dimensions of life. There are more articles ex plaining SivaYoga in our Saiva Ulakam .Please read them. Almost all the verses in Thevaram and Thirumanthiram sing out eloquently ARUL and ANBU and the Nayanmars known as Thiruththondar exemplified a life on Thondu.

Question 4 (DR. M Arunasalam, Malaysia)

What's New

Absolute understanding, absolute clarity, absolute intelligence etc. : What does it really mean? The body can feel pain, sorrow, joy etc. In the same way can we also "feel" or know the Absolute Understanding?


The absolute understanding is SIVAJNANAM which is already there in the soul of every creature though it remains concealed. It is this concealment or Thirobava, that makes us ignorant of it and have only a preunderstanding and not a full understanding of it. Each time we apprehend a truth as a TRUTH, a falsity as a falsity we gain a LUMEN which destroys this concealment and lets the Sivajnanam glow within with greater RADIANCE and because of which we have a better understanding of it. It is ABSOLUTE because only the CIVAJNANAM is noninterpretive, all other forms of our understanding being interpretive. For our ordinary seeing which is always with a "Cuddu" - a "thatness" - provides a TEXT which we "read" and gain an understanding. Such understanding because interpretive, are displaceable and hence 'acat'. Underlying all these displacements is our preunderstanding of SIVAJNANAM, the full understanding of which is non-interpretive. Please refer to my Metaphysica Universalis of Meykandar particularly the commentaries to sutras 6 and 7 for more information. We already have a preunderstanding of Sivajnanam though it's presence is not "felt" the way we feel pains and pleasures. However it's presence and the fact we have a preunderstanding of it is disclosed by the fact that we are philosophic, hermeneutic etc. Why should many of us seek to gain absolute illumination at enormous sacrifices unless there is already a preunderstanding of it but which we want to clarify further and gain an apodeitic certainty? The gnawing uncertainty that drives us towards philosophical investigations particularly of the metaphysical kind is the way we "feel" the presence of Sivanjanam.


More to come; keep in touch.

Part 1
Thanks for dropping by.
Send your questions to: e-mail:
Suba

This page was last updated on - 01/05/1998
Copyright © Suba