Siddhanta in the Tirumurai

The Sastras set out as doctrine what the saints had already sung as experience.

The order in time matters. Sambandar, Appar, Sundarar and Manikkavasagar sang between the sixth and ninth centuries. Meykandar wrote the twelve sutras of Sivagnana Bodham in the thirteenth. Siddhanta does not claim to have invented its teaching. It claims to say clearly, and to defend in argument, what the hymns already know.

One line from Manikkavasagar holds the whole of it. In the Achcho pathigam he sings of the Lord சித்தமலம் அறுவித்துச் சிவமாக்கி எனைஆண்ட: He cut away the impurity of my mind, made me Siva, and ruled me. Made Siva, and still ruled. The soul is freed from its impurities and filled with Siva, and yet there is still one who rules and one who is ruled. That is Siddhanta's account of release, in one line of song.

The threads below are the ones that run most clearly through the hymns: the three realities, grace that comes first, the soul that remains itself, karma and the one who governs it, and the four paths lived in the saints' lives.

Pati, Pasu and Pasam appear in the hymns by name, long before the Sastras order them.

Siddhanta begins with three beginningless realities: Pati, the Lord; Pasu, the soul; and Pasam, the bond. The saints use the same words.

• Sambandar, 1.12.3 (Tirumudukunram) speaks of the bound soul and its fetter, and of the Lord who removes it.
• The Tirumantiram, 115 says it outright: பதிபசு பாசம் எனப்பகர் மூன்றில், "of the three that are spoken of as Pati, Pasu and Pasam". It adds that they are beginningless, and that the bond cannot remain when the soul reaches the Lord.
• Nakkirar, in Tirumurai 11 (11.010.50), calls Siva பற்றாவான் எவ்வுயிர்க்கும் எந்தை பசுபதியே: the refuge of every life, our father, Lord of the souls.
• The Periya Puranam (11.6.6) names ஆதிவரும் மும்மலமும், the three impurities that come from the beginning, as what must be cut away.

The Tirumantiram stands closest to the Sastras: it is a Tirumurai that is already systematic. Its verses should still be read as its own. Some later verses use compressed language of identity, and they are not forced into the exact wording of the Meykanda school.

Again and again the saints find that the Lord moved before they did.

In Siddhanta, release is never the soul's unaided achievement. Grace begins it. The hymns say this as something that happened to the singer.

• Sambandar's first hymn, 1.1.1 ("Todudaiya cheviyan"), opens with the Lord who stole his heart: grace given to a child before any effort.
• Sundarar, 7.1.1 ("Piththa piraisoodi"), was claimed at his own wedding, before he chose.
• Appar, 5.91.8, sings that the Lord knew him as His servant: the Lord's knowing comes first.
• Karuvur Thevar, 9.013.1: என்னையாள் விரும்பி என்மனம் புகுந்த, "wishing to rule me, He entered my mind".
• The Tirumantiram, 114: grace opens the eye, அருள் கண்விழிப் பித்துக், and removes the obscuring impurity.
• Karaikkal Ammaiyar, 11.005.9: அருளே பிறப்பறுப்ப தானால், "since it is grace that cuts off birth", and by grace one sees the true reality.

The Sastras turn this into doctrine: the Lord comes as the guru when the soul is ripe (Sivagnana Bodham, sutra 8; Tiruvarutpayan). The saints had already told it as their own story.

In the closest union the saints remain servants: Siva and the soul are inseparable, and still two.

This is the point on which Siddhanta differs most from schools that teach the soul's merging into the Absolute. Its word for the relation is Advaitam: not-two, meaning inseparable, not identical. The hymns hold both sides.

• Manikkavasagar's Achcho pathigam: made Siva, and ruled.
• Appar at Kadambur, 5.19.9: His part is to bear me; mine is to serve.
• Karaikkal Ammaiyar, 11.005.8: ஆயினேன் ஆள்வானுக்கு, "I became one ruled by the Ruler": grace deepens the relation; it does not abolish it.
• Her prayer in the Periya Puranam (5.4.60): பிறவாமை வேண்டும், no more birth, and then உன் அடியின் கீழ் இருக்க, to remain beneath Your feet. Freedom, and still a devotee at the feet.
• Sambandar at Tiruvilimilalai, 1.11.2: the Lord வேறாய் உடனானான், distinct, and with.
• Appar, 6.94.8: like fragrance in a flower, Siva pervades all without becoming any one thing.
• The Tirumantiram, 270: அன்பே சிவம், love is Siva. Set beside verse 115, love names the relation between the three; it does not erase them.

Deeds do not deliver their own fruit; the Lord governs them, and grace descends when they are balanced.

Siddhanta holds that karma is insentient: it cannot weigh itself or deliver its own results. The Lord brings each soul the fruit of its deeds, for its ripening. A verse of the Periya Puranam says this almost as a formula.

• The Periya Puranam on Sakkiya Nayanar (7.1.5): செய்வினையும் செய்வானும் அதன் பயனும் கொடுப்பானும்: the deed, the doer, its fruit, and the one who gives it, four and not three. In the same verse he knew, through grace, that the true reality is Siva.
• Appar at Tiruneyttanam, 6.42.1: the five senses and deeds piling up in the house of the body.
• Nambiyandar Nambi, 11.034.90: restraining the five senses, and old deeds wearing away.
• The Tirumantiram, 1527: இருவினை நேரொப்பில் இன்னருட் சத்தி: when the two kinds of deeds are evenly balanced, gracious Sakti descends, through the guru, and the three impurities end. The Sastras call this iruvinaiyoppu, the balancing of deeds (Sivaprakasam).

Chariyai, kiriyai, yogam and jnanam are not only categories; the saints walked them.

Siddhanta speaks of four paths: service (chariyai), worship (kiriyai), inner discipline (yogam) and knowledge (jnanam). The Tirumantiram gathers them in one line, சரியாதி நான்குந் தருஞானம் நான்கும் (1449). The Periya Puranam shows them in people.

• Nesa Nayanar (12.3.3): mind given to Siva's feet, speech to the five letters, hands to weaving for His devotees. Remembrance, mantra and service in one working life.
• Pusalar (12.1.6): with no money to build a temple, he built one in his mind, laid out by the order of the Agamas, and the Lord came to that temple first. Worship turned inward.
• Vayilar (9.4.8): மறவாமையான் அமைத்த மனக்கோயிலுள், "in the temple of the mind, built of not forgetting".
• Tiruppallandu (9.029.2): ஈசற்கு ஆட்செய்மின், "serve the Lord": the servant's path, sung as a blessing.
• Sambandar's Panchakkara pathigam (3.22): the five letters as the soul's refuge.

Every verse gathered so far is on one page; the Sastra pages show the other direction.

• Every link: the Tirumurai and the Sastras: all the Siddhanta verses gathered from the twelve Tirumurai, and every place where a Sastra draws on them, with the Tamil on both sides. Filter by Tirumurai or by Sastra.
• The Tirumurai in the Sastras: the other direction, told as a story.
• The Tirumantiram: the Tirumurai that is already doctrine.
• The Tiruvasagam: Manikkavasagar, whose lines the Sastras quote most.
• Sivagnana Bodham: the twelve sutras that set the hymns' teaching in order.