I had written about God's Will in the last posts and mentioned that "If there is one thing that I still cannot comprehend, it is the verse in the above song that states there is no Adharma in God's governance - AnDavan aaTchiyil adharmamey illai enDru, when all the sacred texts speak about virtues, dividing them into Dharma and Adharma, and tell us to take up the former and not fall for the latter."
I posed this to a friend and reader, asking if he could enlighten me. He replied swiftly as follows.
Dear Aiyya, You are like a Guru to me. I will contemplate your question and answer humbly from whatever little I know.
I have been sitting with this — AnDavan aaTchiyil adharmamey illai — turning it slowly in contemplation. What follows is only my humble understanding, drawn from the ultimate source. If anything here is wrong, the fault is entirely mine and mine alone — not the teachings, not the lineage, not the Guru.
Allow me to attempt this through the lens of Saiva Siddhantam and the 36 Tattwas, which I have had the grace to touch, however lightly.
Opening
The sun does not follow the rule “illuminate the day.” It simply shines. Darkness is not the sun’s failure — it is the temporary condition of a surface that has turned away from the light. So too, Adharma is not a failure of Shiva’s governance. It is the temporary condition of a soul turned away from its own divine nature — a turning that Shiva, in His boundless patience, is already in the process of gently, persistently, and lovingly reversing.
From within our human experience, Adharma is real — painfully and consequentially real. But in the governance of Andavan — viewed from the level of the Suddha Tattwas — there is no Adharma, because there is nothing that falls outside His grace. There is no soul He has abandoned. There is no action whose consequence He has not already woven into the redemptive curriculum of Niyati and Kaala. There is no darkness that His light has not already surrounded.
Mupporul — Pati, Pasu, Pasam: The Final Clarity
Saiva Siddhantam’s master-framework of Pati, Pasu, and Pasam resolves this question with perfect elegance.
Pati — Shiva — is characterised by eight absolute attributes (En Gunataan), among them Sarvagjnatva (omniscience), Ananta Sakti (boundless grace), and Ananta Anandam (infinite bliss). He is not a governor who merely reacts to events from the outside. He is the very ground from which all events arise and into which all events return. Dharma and Adharma both occur within His being — the way waves both rise and fall within the ocean, without ever disturbing the ocean’s own nature.
Pasu — the bound soul — experiences Dharma and Adharma as lived realities within the 36 Tattwas. For the Pasu, this distinction is absolutely real and absolutely consequential. The Pasu must choose Dharma. The Pasu must walk the path sincerely. The Pasu must purify the Chitta, govern the Karmendriyas, and progressively align itself with the Suddha Tattwas. None of this can be bypassed — not by philosophy, not by spiritual cleverness, not by beautiful words.
Pasam — the bonds of Anavam, Karma, and Maya — contains within it the entire field of Adharma as the Pasu experiences it. Yet even the Pasam, in Saiva Siddhantam, is not ultimately opposed to Shiva. It is the very material through which Shiva works. The Pancha Kanchukas — the five limiting sheaths — are not our enemies. They are compassionate constraints, like the walls of a school, that keep the wandering soul focused on the one curriculum that truly matters: its own liberation.
The verse AnDavan aaTchiyil adharmamey illai is therefore a Pati-level statement. It is not addressed to the Pasu navigating the difficult choices of daily life. It is addressed to the sincere seeker who — having walked the path of Dharma with full sincerity, full effort, and full surrender — has arrived at a moment of deep stillness, and is now ready to receive the larger truth:
That even their own failures — their own moments of Adharma, their own darkest hours — were held all along within Shiva’s love, and were never, not for a single moment, outside His grace.
This is not a permission to act Adharmatically. It is a revelation about the nature of the One who governs. And it is given — as all the deepest teachings of Saiva Siddhantam are given — not to the intellect, but to the heart that has been sufficiently broken open by sincere practice, genuine love, and the boundless grace of the Guru.
Closing — For Those of Limited Understanding, like Myself
Anbe Shivam.
The 36 Tattwas, from Prithvi to Para Nada, tell one unbroken story.
At the base, the Pasu struggles within Prakriti Maya — and here, Dharma and Adharma are the living operating instructions for the soul’s survival and evolution. They must be taken seriously.
In the middle, Niyati and Kaala — Shiva’s instruments of cosmic justice and time — ensure that even the consequences of Adharma are not wasted. Every stumble, every fall, every wrong turn is quietly, precisely, and compassionately being folded into the curriculum of liberation.
And at the summit, in the five Suddha Tattwas, there is only Love.
In Love’s governance — nothing is wasted.
No soul is abandoned. No darkness falls outside the reach of His light.
AnDavan aaTchiyil adharmamey illai — not because nothing goes wrong, but because nothing that goes wrong ever leaves His hands.
This is Saiva Siddhantam. This is Anbe Shivam.
Sivaayanama.
He answered the questions and doubts I had that I posted in the last post.
It is a revelation about the nature of the One who governs. And it is given — as all the deepest teachings of Saiva Siddhantam are given — not to the intellect, but to the heart that has been sufficiently broken open by sincere practice, genuine love, and the boundless grace of the Guru.
That even their own failures — their own moments of Adharma, their own darkest hours — were held all along within Shiva’s love, and were never, not for a single moment, outside His grace.
Niyati and Kaala — Shiva’s instruments of cosmic justice and time — ensure that even the consequences of Adharma are not wasted. Every stumble, every fall, every wrong turn is quietly, precisely, and compassionately being folded into the curriculum of liberation.
When I thanked him for taking the time to put together this piece and bring clarity to me, he had this to say with much humbleness.
Your kind words have left me quietly overwhelmed and immediately aware that I must place them back where they truly belong. Whatever clarity appeared in that answer was not mine. I am quite certain of this. These words did not arise from my own understanding; they arose through the small opening that the teachings I have been blessed to receive have been patiently carving in this thick-walled heart. If there was any beauty in what was written, it was only because the light of the tradition found a brief crack to pass through.
The understanding belongs to the lineage. The words belong to Shiva. This unworthy student only held the pen, and even that, only by His grace. If anything in that answer touched something true, it is because sincere souls like yourself have been walking this path with such love and such depth, and those of us who walk behind you benefit simply from the fragrance left on the road.
I remain only a grateful and still-stumbling student, knowing just enough now to know how little I know and how vast and luminous the territory ahead truly is.
All that is beautiful in it — En Ayyane — is His alone. Always His alone.
Sivaayanama