Round 1 of 9 · வருகை
Arrival
What Saiva Siddhanta is, the words everything else is built on, and worship at home and in the temple.
You have walked ahead of your lamps
You are welcome here, and may read on. These lamps on the rounds below are not yet lit; this round will open more fully once they are:
You have arrived. The first circuit of the hill is complete.
You came to the foot of the hill knowing perhaps only a name. Now you know the few words everything else is built on: Pati, Pasu and Pasam; the three impurities; the grace that works through the world; the four ways; the guru; and what freedom means. You have seen how they are lived: in the five syllables, in worship at home, and in the temple. You have also sat for a while behind the hill, in silence.
That is what Arrival means. Not that the journey is over, but that you have truly begun it: you are no longer outside, looking at the hill. You are on it.
Next, the people of the tradition: the sixty-three saints, and the four whose songs are sung in every temple.
The circuit is not yet complete
The lotus of this round blooms when all its lamps are lit. Still to light:
Look back on this roundWhat it holds, its lamps and gems, and its inner path
Arrival is where the path begins: what Saiva Siddhanta is, and the few words everything else is built on.
Every pilgrim who comes to the hill first stands at its foot and looks up. Before the climb, a few things must be understood: who Siva is, who we are, what holds us, and how we are freed. This round gathers them, and then turns to where Siddhanta is lived every day: the five syllables, worship at home, and the temple.
The first teachings of this round are short, a few minutes each. Walk them in order. When every lamp on this round is lit, the first circuit of the hill is complete.
The path climbs · Round 2
The saints and their songs
Sixty-three lives, from kings to potters, and the four saints whose songs are sung in every temple.