15. No cit, no Jiva

Verse15

வித்திலாத சம்பிரதாயம் மேலும்இல்லை கீழுமில்லை

தச்சில்லாது மாளிகை சமைந்தவாறும் அதெங்ஙனே?

பெற்றதாயை விற்றடிமை கொள்ளுகின்ற பேதைகாள்!

சித்திலாத போதுசீவன் இல்லைஇல்லை இல்லையே!

Translation:

A tradition without a seed, not above or below/West or East,

Building a mansion without carpentry- how is it?

Stupid people who sell their mother and take slaves in her place!

When there is no Cit there is no Jiva, not there, not there at all.

Commentary:           

            Civavākkiyar reprimands the atheists belonging to the lokāyata and chārvaka traditions here.  The atheists say that there is no Supreme Being and that a soul occurs as a result of the four elements, air, water, fire and earth, coming together.  The soul goes away when these elements dissociate from the body upon death.  This is like saying that the soul, a sentient being, occurred without a seed, an entity with consciousness. Civavākkiyar equates such people to those who sell their birth mother, the Supreme power, the Divine and buying a slave, the five elements and calling them as the origin. 

            Tirumular in his Tirumandiram says that true knowledge is being aware of the difference between cit and acit.  Cit is consciousness; beings who have consciousness are chetanas.  A Jiva is a chetana, one with consciousness, thought limited in nature. Consciousness is the defining quality of a Jiva.  Prakriti or material universe is acit, that which lacks consciousness.  The cit mentioned here represents the Ultimate Reality, the supreme consciousness. According to Kashmir Shaivism, the self-awareness of the Ultimate Reality initiated manifestation.  Hence, without the cit there is no Jiva.

            Through this verse, Civavākkiyar establises that the Ultimate Reality is the root cause of everything.  This verse dispels the theory that the Siddhas are atheists.  They are “pious rebels” who do not believe in the general theory about Godhead.