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Pati-Pasu-Pasa

‘Pati’ is Lord Siva. It is the object of all the Vedas and the Agamas to explain the concepts of
Lord (Pati), bound souls (Pasu) which really means cattle, and bondage (Pasa). Lord Siva is infinite,
eternal, one without a second. He is changeless and indivisible. He is the embodiment of knowledge
and bliss. He energises the intelligence of all souls. He is beyond the reach of mind and speech. He
is the ultimate goal of all. He is smaller than the smallest and greater than the greatest. He is
self-luminous, self-existent, self-contained and self-delight.

‘Pasus’ are the individual souls who are sunk in the quagmire of Samsara. They assume
bodies to work out their good and evil actions and are born as lower and higher beings according to
their nature of Karma. They do virtuous and vicious actions in the course of experiencing the
endless fruits of their Karma and have countless births and deaths. Ultimately they attain the grace
of Lord Siva through meritorious acts and their ignorance is dispelled. They attain salvation and
become one with Lord Siva.
‘Pasa’ is bond. The web of bonds is distinguished into Avidya or Anavamala, Karma and
Maya. Anavamala is egoism. It is the taint due to the false notion of finiteness which the soul has.
The soul imagines itself to be finite and confined to the body and of limited knowledge and power.
It erroneously identifies itself with the perishable body and mistakes the body for its reality. It has
forgotten its essential divine nature.
‘Karma’ is the cause of bodies and manifold bodily experiences and births and deaths. It is
beginningless. It is the cause of the conjunction of the conscious soul with the unconscious body. It
is an auxiliary of Avidya. It is done through thought, word and deed. It takes the form of merit and
sin and produces pleasure and pain. It is subtle and unseen (Adrishta). It exists during creation and
merges into the substratum of Maya during Pralaya. It cannot be destroyed. It must work out its
results.
Maya is the material cause of the world. It is unconscious or unintelligent, omnipresent,
imperishable. It is the seed of the world. The four categories, viz., Tanu, Karana, Bhuvana and
Bhoga beginning with the bodies, spring up from Maya. It permeates all its developments and
causes perversion in the Karmic souls. During Pralaya it is the basic resort of all souls. It is itself a
bond for the souls. All these processes in it are due to the energising influence by Lord Siva. Just as
the trunk, the leaf and the fruit grow from the seed, so also the universe from Kala to earth, springs
from Maya.
The real Nada, the root of sound is evolved from pure Maya by the will of Lord Siva. From
Nada, the real Bindu springs up. From it, the real Sadasiva originates and gives birth to Isvara.
Suddha Avidya is developed from Isvara. The world originates from Bindu and develops into
various forms.