[ 31. Cutarsan and the Destruction of  Ego-inflation; 32. IraavaNaa -- He Who Transgresses Ethics;  33. On Disconstructing Marxism; 34.  AruNandi on Karma and Feelings
 35. The Natural is Pedagogic ]

Hermeneutics and Metaphysics

31 : Cutarsan and the Destruction of Ego-inflation

Genuine mythologies are different from mental fantasies that border science fictions of a kind,  a product of cognitive processes gone cancerous, fantasies produced without any control. Genuine mythologies as products of transductive perceptions  painfully gained by gifted individuals and they  EXPLAIN the historical phenomena so that we have a better understanding of it. This means that they allow interpreting them and relating them to the natural or historical. Genuine mythologies in Hinduism are of this sort though  it is  intermixed with so much that are pure fantasies that disclose no meanings except a certain kind of bizarre fertility of the mind.

In the following verse Appar attends to the cases in which a person can become tyrannical when he gets initiated into the metaphysical realms, the realms of the night journeys  where the hidden and the concealed are disclosed and the person who experiences this becomes somewhat TRANSPERSONAL and sometimes ego-inflated  because of that. The Asura who lurks in these realms of the night journeys is called Calantaran , meaning he who lurks  in the waters , here the paaRkadal, the ocean of milk over which lies the Atisesha and over which sleeps Thirumaal or Vishnu.

It is a Saivite mythical theme in which Vishnu figures but drives in the point that Sutarsan is the weapon that can kill Cantaran, a mythical theme hermeneutically very significant. Sutarsan is a symbolically a disc but the meaning indicates that  it is the Vision of TRUTH that can kill Cantaran, the Asura of   Ego-inflation.

More analytical comments below.
 

143

 tadamalar aayirnagkaN kuRai onRataaka
    niRaivenRu tan kaN atanaal
udan vazipaadu ceyta tiumaalai entai
    perumaan ukantu mikavum
cudaradiyaal  muyanRu cuzalvittu arakkan
    itayam piLanta kodumai
adalvali yaazi aaziyaan avanukku aLitta
    avanaam namakor caraNee

Meaning:

Tirumaal, one of the root archetype of BEING is said to sleep over the KundaliNi snake over the ocean of milk. Whensuch a BEING was disturbed by an evil force, Calantaran, Tirumaal to combat and defeat him, began to worship Civa toprocure the disk, Cutarsan , as a blessing from HIM. When he started his worship with a thousand flowers and when he noted that one was missing, he plucked out one of own eyes with that as flower completed the prayer. Civa pleased with it  generated the disc by creating a whirlpool of light with his brilliant  feet and granted to him.  This disc, the Cutarsan, a powerful and terrible  weapon split open the chest of Calantaran and killed him. This Civa who is capable of this is really our recluse.

Commentary:

Now Appar takes up the problems men face and sometimes even  become tyrannical  as a result of what can be called thenight journeys, journeys into the Depth Psychological  World, the metaphysical realms and which world is said to be ruledby Tirumal, or Maha Vishnu ,  He who is known as the archetype of aRituyil, the false sleep in which seeing continueshowever.  This seeing  is NOT the ordinary seeing with two flesh eyes but rather the Third Eye, the eyes of  night dreams
and lucid dreams, visions of transductive perceptions that erupt in the case of some individuals and catches them bysurprise and where the world of conscious becomes visible for the first time.

Such experiences  emerged when the soul is possessed or taken over by this Tirumaal who is said to govern this world.He is said operate sleeping over the coiled thousand hooded SNAKE, Atisesha and over the Paarkadal, the ocean of Pure Milk, mythic themes that need to be interpreted and understood. The Snake, Atisesha is the Coiled Power, the Kundalini, the enormous psychical ENERGY that is required for enjoying and persisting in the realms of transductive perceptions. It
lies on the PaaR Kadal, the ocean of Pure Milk and which means Pure Consciousness or some kind of deep metaphysical understanding. Thus it explains the PRECONDITION for an individual to be blessed with the grace of Tirumal and hence gaining illuminations about the concealed metaphysical realms.

However even here emerges the evil force Calantaran, which literally  means "he who resides in the waters". For sometimes individuals forgetful  of BEING and that whatever extraordinary metaphysical illuminations that they enjoy are actually gifts of BEING and that there can many such individuals, in fact any who satisfies the preconditions can enjoy it. Such individuals  become EGO-INFLATED and  begin to think that they are UNIQUE and SPECIAL and hence someone like a messiah who has come to rescue the whole of mankind and so forth.

Though the metaphysical journeys have the capacity to destroy all the mental constraints and delimitedness of understanding, and chages the personality in the direction of transpersonality,  but sometimes it so  happens that theybecome intoxicated with such revelations and mesmerized by such visions begin also their political activities in which they seek to REALIZE the new image they have of themselves. They become like a politically ambitious warriors who set out to conquer the whole world and bring it  under his ONE umbrella and hence  messianic individuals of a kind who set out to conquer the whole of the Spiritual World so that the whole of humanity become submissive to him and ONLY to him. In fact he makes people FORGET  he true source of all greatness -- BEING Himself -- and worship also becomes displaced , from being unto BEING ONLY to the messiah-like individual.

This is being possessed by the Evil Force Calantaran  and about which Tirumal cannot do anything. For it requires someone TRANSCENDENT to the realms of of the Night Journeys, transcendent to the world of the transductive persons. Tirumal knowing this prays to Civa , who is noted here as BEING itself, the Absolute that beyond and above which there is NOTHING. He has a prayer and with sacrifices appropriate to the boons he praying for, the Disc of Cutarsan. But for this he has to give up one of his own eyes and which means that he has to give up being caught up in the world of Night journeys and look BEYOND and ABOVE with the understanding the realms of night journeys do NOT exhaust the WORLD as such.

The word "cutarasan" means  cudar - tarisanam, the witnessing of BEING as Radiance or  cu-tarisanam , authentic seeing or Truth-Seeing.   It is forged by BEING Himself out of a whirlpool created by the DANCE of His feet of Light, cudar adi. And this means that the WEAPON that can finally KILL ego-inflation  and thus reduce such paranoiac individuals to become REALISTIC and humble is the vision provided by cutarsan, the vision of TRUTH as such, that which makes an
individual truly mystical and at the same infinitely  humble and gentle and of course a True Bakta.

In the iconography of Tirumal  we have this Disc on the left shoulder and Conch on the Right. The conch stands for CALLING people unto to metaphysical world through the art of Upatesa, metaphysical discourses. But now he is also endowed with Cutarsan which means that Upatesam is combined with search for TRUTH, it is organized  so that it ceases to be purely imaginary , a flight into the world of fantasy but rather a meaningful  delving into the depths always mindful
that only TRUTH must sought  and that  one should NOT be misguided on the way into becoming the messiah and so forth.

32 : IraavaNaa : He who Transgresses Ethics
 

Mythology is NOT simply a communicative devise  the intelligent njanies devise to educate the intellectually incompetent. It is a language by its own that embody AXIOMATIC TRUTHS, the piramaaNas in the sense of Meykandar that even the most intelligent entertain. It is dumb and mute but precisely because of that immensely communicative of TRUTHS beyond the cluster of words and clangs of mantras. The myths encrypt a deep truth that require deciphering and understanding and this can take the whole life time but even then there is no guarantee that the truth will be  grasped. Like the Athicudi of Auvaiyar  who invented the strategy to teach moral principles along with the Tamil alphabets (like 'aRam ceyya Virunbu" : you should love to do the good) , a person learns as a 5 year old child these aphorisms only to ponder over them rest of his to understand them.

The myths stay in the mind of both  the njanies and the commoners flashing out INSIGHTS into the workings of the world and thereby LIGHTING  UP UNDERSTANDING  so that existence becomes something they understand.

IraavaNaa has figured more in the hymns of Nayanmars than Rama . This is specially so in the hymns of Appar where in almost every patikam there is a verse concerning defeat of IraavaNaa in the hands of Civa. Thus this mythical theme must have been something enormously MEANINGFUL and certainly something to  do with Bakthi.

IraavaNaa, among other things is also the one who ventured to SHAKE the foundations of World Process itself, the Kailash where resides Civa with His beloved Parvathy. IraavaNaa is a prototype for anyone who,  feeling mighty powerful on his own, cannot stand any CONSTRAINT whatever  for his actions,  someone  wants to be a foundation unto himself and becomes the arch  dissenter, the destroyer of whatever that stands as an authority.

But of course EXISTENCE has its own ETHICAL constraints and no matter how powerful an individual is , he too is bound to live by these elements of Dharma, and any attempt to throw them out or trangress will only result in losing everything, including the good health.

So reasons Appar in the following verse.

 Appar 144

kadukiya teercelaatu kayilaaya miitu
    karuteel un viiramozi nii
mudukuvatu anRu tanmammena ninRu paakan
    mozivaanai nanRu muniyaa
viduvidu venRu cenRu viraivuRRu arakkan
    varaiyuRRu edukka muditooL
nedunedu viRRuviiza viraluRRa paata(m)
    ninaivuRRatu en tan mananee

Meaning:

Thinking that there should be NO  rivals to him, including the Godhead, IraavaNaa dared to visit  on a chariotKailash itself where resides Civa with Parvathy and to shake it  down destroy.  The charioteer noting this with regretsadvised IraavaNaa saying that no chariot can ever enter Kailash and also such an act would be supremely unethical, IraavaNaa nevertheless  urged on further  being also very angry with him. On reaching  the mountain he bent down to shake the foundations but Civa noting this pressed a little with his toes whence IraavaNaa s' crown as well as the
body shattered to pieces.  Unable to bear the pains  he cried loudly. The feet of Civa that made IraavaNaa cry thus  is something I recall now in view of the current circumstances.

Commentary:

In almost every patikam Appar never  fails to recall IraavaNaa and how he was humiliated by Civa and madesubmissive to him. Perhaps in the personality of the Mahendra Pallava, the mighty emperor who persecuted him ,Appar saw the presence of IraavaNaa, the archetypal figure, the embodiment of the Evil and Unethical and in this a Saivite Anti-Christ or a sort. IraavaNaa, as the archetypal figure is something that all us  are capable of becoming and hence something deep within us and hence something that can erupt into our consciousness and take possession of us
and transform our personality into something evil and of course extremely arrogant, a ten-headed fierce figure.

IraavaNaa wants to shake the very Kailash where resides Civa with his Parvathy, the WOMAN who is His equal half. Residing there HE  RULES the whole universe  making sure the Tanmam or Tarumam (Sk Dharma), the ethical principles are NOT violated but adhered to. Everything in the world is ruled by ETHICS with a stubbornness that we cannot overcome and hence  be free. No matter how powerful politically we are, finally there is the transpersonal ETHICALITY of the actions we do and hence  ultimately we are accountable to BEING in terms of the actions we do. We CANNOT transgress the ethical regulation of our praxis and which is NOT purely a matter of economical issues or even that of sharing political powers and so forth. The Ethics is there guiding our journey into the metaphysical realms and finally the Kailash , the Saivite version of the Paradise the mythical rendering of CiRRambalam, Citambaram or Tillaiampalam , the realm of absolutely Pure Consciousness and where shines Civanjanam.

IraavaNaa in the Tevaram corpus is the prototypical figure who DARES  to challenge even this ethical foundation of existence itself and after destroying it rebuild it as  HIS OWN, i.e. Displace Godhead and emplace himself in His place so that his will becomes that which is  GOOD for everybody  and hence  that which is ethical. In other word, IraavaNaa becomes the prototypical figure of a man who would, instead approaching BEING with genuine Bakthi, would try to become God Himself -- saying or implying "I am God" , "I am the Way" etc.

But of course IravaNaa is taught a lesson -- though mighty as an Emperor but in comparison  with BEING who has the Cauldron of Power itself, Parvathy, as His equal Half, his is infinitesimal and on account of which Civa just has to  press a little  the Hill with his toe to destroy everything that is the source of power for IraavaNaa.

He loses his Crown i.e. all his political powers. And on  top of that he loses his mighty shoulders  , that which stands for the extremely strong physical body. For the body can become weak  through diseases  and old age which begin to afflict a person if he is arrogant and UNETHICAL. What is IMMORAL elicits the aaNavam the poison that kills if not regulated and kept under control by the Dancing Feet of BEING as Civa Nadarajah. Diseases that make a person shudder with fear and lose  all the bodily strength is what comes to prevail when the ethical principles are violated.

33: On Disconstructing Marxism

Marxism, if I am not mistaken arose through despiritualising the essentially spiritual metaphysics of Hegel. His dialectics of thesis antithesis and synthesis was replaced with the dialectics  of material forces  with its consequent result of looking at history in terms of class wars, bourgeois vs the proletariat. The spiritual oneness of mankind was also reunderstood in terms of  egalitarian  principles and  that have become the main aspect of their philosophy that has been immensely  appealing throughout the world. And within the background  of  the caste-promoting  Brahmanism , it will continue to be attractive  as there is something deeply true and perhaps also deeply spiritual about it. It stands for  the equality of mankind in some sense mostly economic and political.

No religion can uproot it for all religions presuppose the prior acceptance of some scriptures as authoritative . Even the brotherhood Islam proclaims is not something rationally arrived at but rather proposed as words of God and that too as disclosed to Prophet Mohammed ( Sal) and who , it is demanded also must be accepted as the last prophet. The same goes for Vedism and Brahmanism -- throw  away the Vedas and there is no Vedism or  Brahmanism. Brahmanism cannot  account for Spiritual life without recourse to the Vedas and along with it the  caste Brahmanahs.
 

But should spiritual foundation of existence be  beyond the rational mind? I don't think so. Once we look at EXISTENCE   and analyze it along the lines of Hermeneutic Science and as an exercise in which we  GAIN an understanding of  existence  with INTERPRETING what is available there and this without quoting the scriptures the rishies acharyas prophets and so forth , we can secure the essential spirituality of existence.

The clue is provided by the following verses of Arunandi from his massive Civanjana Cittiyaar.

He notes the element of LOVE between a man and a woman is essentially spiritual and in  this he is helped immensely by the detailed and empirical analysis of LOVE life of Tolkaappiyar and also the Kaamatup Paal of TiruvaLLuvar and a host of other such texts in ancient Tamil.

In this there is an interesting Theory of Evolution which should be termed Disclosive- Evolution as distinct from the Adaptive-Evolution or Emergent-Evolution  of the West. The disclosive evolution  notes that there is  a kind cosmic dynamics where the hidden and concealed , those that lurk in the depths surface to the fore and become the phenomenal. Like the famous box of the Chinese, as you take out one box there is another in it, and another in that and so forth.

The dynamics of LOVE life which is phenomenal and universal, at least among the human beings,  has as its Deepest Structure, not the mechanisms of physical biological sexual psychological and so forth but the the spiritual -- BEING differentiating into the MALE and FEMALE and maintaining LOVE as that which binds them. There is LOVE in the world , as the phenomenal presence at least among the human beings only because at the deepest level, there is the WOMAN and MAN in LOVE with each other; the human love life is the Dance of Civa -Sakthi in union with the Civa tatvas Natham and Bindu.

Perhaps in the disconstruction of the Marxism and the dry materialistic secularism these views of Arunandi, his disclosive-evolution may be of some use, I think.
 

46

kaaraNam avaiyenRatu  ennai
    kadaati pool nikaz kaariyam
neer aNaintu camaintu ninRidum
    enpatum neerkiloom
poor aNaintidum onRoodonRu
    poruntumaakil varuntiyum
niir aNaitoru tiiyin ninRatu
    kaNdataayin nikazttidee

Meaning:

Lokayata! You maintain that it is unnecessary to say it is  BEING who feeds the Karma in accordance with theactions effected and because of which we have sexual  differences among the creatures and reproductive processes along with it, and maintain that like pots and pans, the reproductive processes are physical in that the basic physical elements come to mix in appropriate measures and emerge as a creature. But however this NOT something observable in the world. Furthermore you maintain that physical elements are attracted to each other by gravitational forces and mixing thus create the offsprings . But again this is unacceptable for we do not see Fire attracting Water and Waterstanding in some combination with Fire. If you have seen instances such as these, let us know.

47.

puutameevum puNarcciyee puri
    kaaya kaaraNamaakumeel
kaatal aaNodu peNNum meevu
    puNarcci kaaraNam aavaten
aatiyee ulakattil aaNodu
    peNNumaay aNai kaariyam
naatan naayakiyoodu kuudi
    nayanta kaaranam enparee

Meaning:

Lokayata ! You maintain that reproduction of creatures take place on account of the gravitational pulls the basic electshave for each other and because of which they combine in various ways producing the offsprings and so forth. Thenhow to explain the fact at least among the human beings this is not so and that sexual arousal that leads conjugational activities that brings about regeneration of the species take place only on account of LOVE as such. To explain the
sexual union of a male and female the wise say all these things are real in the world only because BEING, as the Androgynous Reality has a Male Aspect  and a Female Aspect  and  there comes to be LOVE as such only becausethe Male looks lovingly at the Female

Notes:

AruNandi is at great pains to point out that the element of LOVE that exists among human beings and whichunderlies sexual union between a male and female ( possibly also among lower creatures) cannot be explained in termsof gravitational pulls that exist among the brute physical elements or even in turns of psychophysical processes underlying the biological and sexual.  The World  Process  is basically physical but written  into it is the biological and in it the sexual and psychological.

The biological contains within itself the sexual differentiation. However we have now another  reality -- the PSYCHOLOGICAL  -- and within which  emerges LOVE as such and along with it , the higher plane of existence, the SPIRITUAL.

Love between man and woman , as already studied in great depth by Tolkaappiyar, is NOT any rule governedbehavior and which woman will love which man remains immensely mystical -- always transcends any rules that we can concoct in terms of psychological or  sociological principles. Finally it is concluded that LOVE between a man and woman is  matter of aruL, something that happens only because it is willed so by BEING, or as Tolkaappiyar would say 'paalatu  aaNai", i.e. happens only in accordance with the DECREE of BEING.

There is LOVE in the world only because  at the deepest metaphysical level there is LOVE between BEING-as-Male and BEING-as -Female, the Saivite Adam and Eve. Thus LOVE as such is not even psychical, it EXCEEDS it and because of it  rather spiritual. The most sprituality remains manifest and phenomenal in the LOVE between a man and a woman.

Hermeneutics and Metaphysics

34: AruNandi on Karma and Feelings

Saiva Siddhanta, the roots of which can be traced to Sumerian times,  has been cultivating music dance and such other fine arts as integral parts of religious rituals. While certainly this is true of all religious tradition including the primitive, what is distinctive of Saiva Siddhanta is the SOPHISTICATION with which it was maintained and cultivated.  There was an UNDERSTANDING of the relevance of FEELINGS as an important component of  the dynamics of human behavior and that unless it is CULTIVATED, development in personality , the transformation of the inherent bestiality of man is impossible.  Dance and Music and such other fine arts have an important in this. Thus we see even in historical times FEELINGS being an important area of studies. We see this in the Third Book of Tolkaappiyam where feelings are called 'meypaadu' viz. bodily experiences betraying a Lokayata beginnings just prior to Tol. period. Tolkaappiyar effects a transition through analysis of DISCOURSE both natural and literary and establishes that FEELINGS are NOT bodily experiences , autonomic  responses to internal and external stimuli but rather UriporuL, that which belongs essentially to psychic entities.

Naiyaayikas appear to make use of such ideas to establish the truth of psychic entities distinct from BEING  and so forth.

The Lokayatas during the time of the Imperial Cholas -- and there must have been several brilliant ones -- return to the age old physicalistic explanations to refute the need to posit the reality of Karma to explain the presence of pains and pleasures in life. Their arguments are quite similar to that given by Behaviorists like Pavlov and Skinner in recent times where they note that stimuli , both internal and external are NATURALLY  aversive or non aversive and hence creatures conditionable in terms of schedules of reinforcement . When a certain behavior is required then it should be positively reinforced and if otherwise then negatively. They also take the ethical values of right  and wrong, good and bad, likable dislikabel and so forth as  products of such reinforcement they have had  in their  interactions  with both the social and physical environment.

If this true then the positing of Karma as the Deep Structure element for explaining the presence happiness and miseries  in life will not be necessary.

AruNandi brings a series of arguments to disconstruct such  a Lokayata view to clarify that feelings of pains and pleasures are  NOT simply bodily responses but rather psychical experiences. An experience even of the physical kind can be happiness producing or pain producing and not only for different people but for the same person  depending upon MOOD. Also he relates the presence of such moods  to the presence  of a feedback mechanism as that which INFORMS a person by producing pains when evil actions are committed and  pleasures when something good is committed. In this way all creatures are predisposed to be ETHICAL and the cause of this ethicality is Karma.

More below in the notes.

48.

kantam vemmai kalantidum punal
    kanmam en ceytatu enRanai
cantanan tazal caara niir iru
    tanamai uRRidumaaRatoor
tanta kanmam irandu aNaintu
    tarunj cukattodu tukkamum
cintiyaa ezu ciivan uRRidum
    veeRu udaRkilai teeRee

Meaning:

Lokayata maintains that in order to explain the experience of pains and pleasures in life it is NOT necessary to invokeKarma as the causal factor. Just water becoming fragrant when it mixes with sandal paste but  hot when in contactwith fire, so does the experiences of pains and pleasures. It all depends on the contextual factors into which the bodyof a living creature gets and the feelings of joy and miseries are purely responses to the contingencies of the physical situation. But it is pointed out that it is the karma that gets differentiated thus in conjunction with the Pure and Impure metaphysical grounds, the Pure producing karmas that bring about happiness and karmas of the Impure miseries. Furthermore such pains and pleasures being FEELINGS do not belong to the bodily responses but rather theexperiences of the psychical entities.

Notes:

Here begins an interesting line of debate with regard to the nature of FEELINGS. Lokayatas,  like the modern dayBehaviorists and other logical positivists consider the pains and pleasures and hence all FEELINGS as such,  areresponses of the physical body to the different kinds of physical stimuli coming from the physical environment. Apainful environment like the extremely hot desert landscape elicits automatically responses that are painful. Similarly the stimuli coming from a flower garden elicit responses that are exultant pleasant joyous  and so forth.

But Arunandi points out that feelings are NOT simply physical and mechanical  responses of the body to the different kinds of stimuli coming from the environment. For the same stimuli can be either painful or blissful depending on the MOOD of the person. A pleasant environment and physical stimuli coming from such an environment does not always translate into moods of joy and happiness. One can be  happy in the desert and sad in the garden. Feelings are experienced by the psychic entities and hence are NOT to be confused with bodily responses.

How then there comes to be pains and pleasures?

When an unthinking and unilluminated anma effects actions, these actions may be related either to the  Pure or Impure grounds. The metaphysical world is both Dark and Light, Pure and Impure. The karmas the actions elicit gets differentiated into the pain-producing or pleasure-producing depending upon the metaphysical grounds touched by the actions. Karma thus differentiated become either happiness conferring or miseries producing by way of EDUCATING on the ethics of actions, the rightness and wrongness of actions.

35: The Natural is Pedagogical

There are individuals, though not Lokayata in outlook but function as if so. Such individuals will work for the death of the creative hence change development  and progress and arrest everything in the name of dogmas, institutions  or even feigned authority of some scriptures. They would like to  regiment religion, arrest it within a certain institution a social order such as the Varnasra Dharma and what not so that any thing NEW would be censored as illegitimate, false , an aberration, and a deviation.

But despite all these strictures and valiant attempts  to regiment everything, cracks appear and the NEW bursts forth subsuming the old or even sweeping it aside as it happened during the bakthi period in India. An overall view of such historical processes led the Saivites to view not only the whole Cosmic process as a Dance and hence forever changing but also as a process where BEING discloses Himslef more and more and because of which there is Disclosive -Evolution where the HIGHER begins to be there as PRESENCE. This is NOT Hegelian Spirit that realizes Itself  in History but rather  the Spirit spiritualizing the world remaining Itself  unaffected by all.

The changes  are there in the world so that there will be MORE spirituality among human beings. And when individuals  allow for destructive within so that there begins to be more of BEING in his personality, they enjoy a higher level Being in the world. Such individuals are the truly developed in the Saiva way of looking at personality development.

In his combat with the Lokayatas who favoured a mechanical kind of explantion of the world process, AruNandi views the differentiatedness of feelings and they being positive and negative as evidences for not only the presence of BEING but also for the fact he INSTRUCTS, that he serves as the MahaGuru and that's the reason there is such a thing as karma as a determinant of human existence.
 

49.

inbam eyti iruntu nii vinai
    ilai ingku iyalbu enRidil
tunbam eytiduvaan en maRRitu
    collidaay colavallaiyeel
munbu ceytidu kanmam enraRi
    kanmamum mutalvan aRintu
anbinaala uRuvikkum appyan
    aangku amaippodu anaatiyee

Meaning:

Lokayata! You maintain that it is natural for all living things to be happy and hence such states of being do not require a  causal explanation  and thus it is not necessary to bring karma and so forth to explain it. Then how do you explain the fact  that  there  are sadness and miseries and such states of unhappiness in life  that no living creature would enjoy but rather   despises? Within the framework of physicalism where you take everything to be generated out of the four physical  elements, how can you explain the presence of miseries in life and which is a fact of existence? If you cannot explain then you must learn to see that these undesirable and painful states of being are the results of certain kinds of actions that are  disastrous  for the continuos well being of the creatures. When actions that cause the FALL of the creatures by taking them closer to aaNavam, BEING instructs  the creatures of such course of their life in order to redeem them from that course of actions and this is done out of LOVE for creatures. Also you should note that it is NOT something new --  BEING has been thus guiding the creatures right from the primordial times.

NOTES:

This verse contains some very important notions that touch upon the notion of evolution  that is also central to Saiva Siddhanta. But the evolutionary theory , if we can call it such, is the NOT the adaptive-evolution of the Darwinian type that does not acknowledge  the important role BEING plays in it but the the Disclosive-Evolution, growth and development on account of the disclosures BEING makes in the life of creatures contingent upon the actions they effect. Disclosive-Evolution is BEING centered.

Actions the creatures effect are instrumental in determining their evolutionary dynamics both phylogenetically and ontogenitically. The ontogentic is NOT just a recapitulation of the phylogenetic but also recording creative advances. For the impulses for actions are NOT only the various kinds of stimuli that comes from the environment both external and  internal but also the various projections implanted in the  mind of creatures by BEING  and which the creatures may own  as their own. Their wants and wishes are also conditioned by the various kinds of INPUTS from BEING and which are designed to LIFT UP the very Being of the creatures. When the creatures own up these inputs from BEING and effect  actions in order BECOME the projected possibility then we have growth and development all collectively resulting in the
evolution.

Karma is brought in as the intermediary mechanism that underlies the evolutionary dynamics of creatures. The karma deposits are action outcomes that regulate and fashion the evolutionary growth of creatures, they transcending the limits  of one of birth and assuming  something higher and assuming the biological body and cognitive utensils consistent with it  . These processes are regulated by the karmic deposits that constitutes the prapta karma, that information cluster that is  carried over from one birth to another ( and which may linked with genetic factors that are being studied now)

Now Lokayatas deny such transmission mechanisms by denying that FEELINGS as such being NATURAL to creatures do not demand a causal explanation at all. However this may apply to states of Being  where there is joy happiness and  pleasures of various kinds. However it is fact of life, including that of  the animals that there are MISERIES of all kinds  and which are AVERSIVE to creatures. The question that Arunandi raises pertains to this: Why are there states of Being some of which are pleasant but certainly some others very unpleasant and painful; there is happiness along with sadness. This duality of aesthetics shows that there is reality behind such events of life and therefore the presence of Karma as the causal factor.

Arunandi also notes that this is the very mechanism of EVOLUTION and therefore something already there right from the beginning of the phenomenal circulation of the creatures.  There is ETHICAL regulation of existence where when EVIL actions are effected , it is indicated  by a feedback mechanism where pains are produced as consequences of it. Such a feedback is done by BEING Himself and that too out of LOVE for the creatures. For unless the creatures are thus guided, in their metaphysical blindness and hence ignorance, they are likely to go deeper and deeper into the EVIL ways and thus get destroyed through the dominance of aaNavam, the arch killer, that which appears as the Satanic forces in mythologies.