A friend and a reader read my piece, "The Tools", and wrote a beautiful piece elaborating further according to his understanding. He writes beautifully. I had asked that he start writing a blog too, for his command of the English language and his in-depth knowledge of religious and spiritual subjects are appealing. This piece of his could be the start of more writings and greater pieces to come our way.
I share his writing with readers here.
THE TOOLS
Siddha Heartbeat
Published: Monday, 25 May 2025
“But seeking God is very personal. As such, can anyone truly show us the way, the path, the method, and the means to it? Can anyone claim to be an authority on religious and spiritual matters? Everyone is walking the path and journeying towards it, be it the layman or the guru, for Ramalinga Adigal, in charting the many phases, speaks of its numerous stages. Where do we stand in this spiritual ladder? How long is the journey going to take us to reach the top? It all begins with faith and belief first, and taking little baby steps, not forgetting the effort and practice needed to reach there. Rest assured, we shall see the results in good time.”
Indeed. And what a quietly liberating truth that is.
Because if seeking God is personal — truly personal — then there is no single corridor we must all squeeze through. Saiva Siddhantam reminds us that the soul — the Pasu — is not uniform in its bondage or its readiness. Each soul carries its own weight of Anava — that primal sense of smallness and separateness — wound tightly around it across countless lifetimes. The loosening of that knot is not a single event. It is a long, patient unraveling, unique to each soul, overseen by Shiva alone in His infinite compassion.
Can anyone claim authority on such matters? Perhaps the honest answer is: only partially, and only humbly. The Guru in the Saiva Siddhanta tradition is not merely a teacher — he is the very form through which Pati, the Lord, extends His grace downward toward the bound soul. And yet even the Guru does not walk for us. Tirumular, in the Tirumantiram, makes this beautifully clear:
ஆசாரி யாரென்று கேட்கின்றோம் நாமே —
தேசாந்தி ரத்துள் சிவனருள் பெற்றோரே
Ācāri yārenʻru kēṭkinṛōṃ nāmē —
Tēsānti rattṫuḷ civaṉaruḷ peṛṛōrē
“Who is the true Acharya, we ask —
He who, in this wide world, has received the grace of Shiva.”
— Tirumular, Tirumantiram
The teacher points. The grace descends. But the soul must turn — must make itself available. Authority in spiritual life belongs ultimately not to the human vessel, but to the Shakti moving through it.
And so everyone walks. The layman fumbling through daily life, finding God in unexpected moments of stillness. The guru, disciplined and devoted, still bowing before something immeasurably larger than himself. Ramalinga Adigal, in his Thiruvarutpa, did not speak of one stage or two — he charted the Arutperum Jyothi, the vast ocean of Grace-Light, as something approached gradually, through ever-deepening surrender. The Suddha Avastha — the state of purified soul-consciousness — is not seized. It is grown into, the way a seed grows into a tree: invisibly, steadily, in the dark.
Where do we stand on this ladder? Saiva Siddhantam speaks of the soul moving through Kevala Avastha — bound and unaware, shrouded in Anava Malam — into Sakala Avastha, where the soul engages with the world and its experiences become the very classroom of liberation. Most of us live here, in the Sakala — and that is not a failure. It is where the work happens. It is where Charya, Kriya, Yoga, and Jnana — the four-fold path — slowly, faithfully, do their purifying work upon us.
How long will it take? The Siddhanta does not promise a timeline. It promises something better — that Shiva’s grace, Shaktinipata, will descend at the moment of the soul’s ripeness: not a moment before, not a moment after. Our practice does not earn that grace — nothing can earn what is freely given. But practice prepares the vessel. It thins the walls. It makes us more permeable to what is always already pouring toward us.
It begins with faith and belief — Shraddha — not certainty, but the willingness to keep showing up before the altar even when the heart feels dry. Baby steps, yes. The Charya path begins simply: service, ritual, presence. No grand illuminations required at the start. Meykandar in the Sivagnana Botham reminds us that the soul cannot know itself or Shiva through intellect alone — it must be touched, turned, and transformed from within:
அறிவித்தான் றானே அறிவாய் அறிவித்து
Aṛivittān ṛānē aṛivāy aṛivittu
“He Himself, as pure Awareness, causes the soul to know.”
— Meykandar, Sivagnana Botham
The effort, the practice, the showing up even on days we feel nothing — none of it is wasted. In the Saiva vision, every sincere act of seeking is seen by Shiva. The Pasa — the bonds — weaken not all at once, but grain by grain, through every prayer offered, every ego quietly laid down, every moment of genuine surrender.
Rest assured, the results will come. The soul that persists will find, one day, that the silence it once found empty has become full. That the God it once sought outside has been recognized within. That what began as effort has become effortless love — Anbu — which Thirumoolar in the Tirumantiram calls the very substance of the path:
அன்பே சிவம்
Aṉbē Sivam
“Love itself is Shiva.”
— Thirumoolar, Tirumantiram
We are all on our way — the layman, the seeker, the guru — each carrying our particular weight of Malam, each receiving our particular measure of grace, each being worked upon by the same silent, tireless, infinitely patient Pati.
Let us keep walking — faithfully, humbly, and with love.
அருட்பெரும் ஜ்யோதி. அருட்பெரும் ஜ்யோதி. தனிபெரும் கருணை அருட்பெரும் ஜ்யோதி.
Arutperum Jyothi. Arutperum Jyothi. Thaniperum Karunai Arutperum Jyothi.