Comment.
“I’m not sure where the idea of saiva sithaandham being ‘dualism’ came from. saiva sithaandham is suthathuvidham (suth-adwaitha). It is also non-dualism but, not interpreted in the manner that shankarachariyar interprets, which is kehvala adwaita. sankarachaariyar expounds on God being the soul as well and that the soul becomes God upon liberation. sithaandham states that God and soul are two separate intelligent entities with the soul being inferior. Upon liberation, the soul is merged in an inseparable, non-dual, subtle state with sivaperumaan where, its ego is banished and thus, it as no experience of itself but only God and thus, only identifies with God and experiences only a little of the Bliss of God, at a time — even so, even though They exist as one Entity, they are two.”
Reply.
Advaita is unadulterated Non Dualism.
Adi Sankara though advocated Bhakti as evidenced from his works like Bhaja Govindam and the first Bhasya of his on ‘Sri Vishu Sahasra Nama’.
Notwithstanding his adherence to Bhakti Sankaracharya deals with all the paths to Realize Reality, Jnana,Karma,Bhakti-though to a very limited extent Raja Yoga). his Advaitic interpretations of the ‘Maha Vakyas-Tat Tvam Asi,Aham Brahmasmi, Soham Asmi ‘is so strict that he was and still is accused of being a pseudo Buddhist(incorrect understanding of Advaita will lead one to Sunyavada of Buddhists).
For Shaiva Siddhanta, the basic Principles are Pasu,Pathi and Paasm, where Path(Lord Siva)i is always Supreme.
Quote
Considered normative tantric Saivism, Shaiva Siddhanta[1] [2](Tamil:சைவ சித்தாந்தம்) provides the normative rites, cosmology and theological categories of tantric Saivism.[3] Being a dualistic philosophy, the goal of Shaiva Siddhanta is to become an ontologically distinct Shiva (through Shiva’s grace).[4] This tradition was once practiced all over India. However the Muslim subjugation of north India restricted Shaiva Siddhanta to the south,[5] where it merged with the Tamil Saiva movement expressed in the bhakti poetry of the Nayanars.[6] It is in this historical context that Shaiva Siddhanta is commonly considered a “southern” tradition, one that is still very much alive.[6] Shaiva Siddhanta encompasses tens of millions of adherents, predominantly in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka (see Hinduism in Sri Lanka). Today it has thousands of active temples there and a number of monastic/ascetic traditions, along with its own community of priests, the Adisaivas, who are qualified to perform Shaiva Siddhantin temple rituals.
The culmination of a long period of systematisation of its theology appears to have taken place in Kashmir in the tenth century, the exegetical works of the Kashmirian authors Bhatta Narayanakantha and Bhatta Ramakantha being the most sophisticated expressions of this school of thought.[7] Their works were quoted and emulated in the works of twelfth-century South Indian authors, such as Aghorasiva and Trilocanasiva.[8] The theology they expound is based on a canon of Tantric scriptures called Siddhantatantras or Shaiva Agamas. This canon is traditionally held to contain twenty-eight scriptures, but the lists vary,[9] and several doctrinally significant scriptures, such as the Mrgendra,[10] are not listed. In the systematisation of the ritual of the Shaiva Siddhanta, the Kashmirian thinkers appear to have exercised less influence: the treatise that had the greatest impact on Shaiva ritual, and indeed on ritual outside the Shaiva sectarian domain, for we find traces of it in such works as the Agnipurana, is a ritual manual composed in North India in the late eleventh century by a certain Somasambhu.[11] After the twelfth century, North Indian evidence for the presence of the Shaiva Siddhanta grows rarer. The school appears to have died out in other parts of India even as it grew in importance in the Tamil-speaking south. There its original emphasis on ritual fused with an intense devotional (bhakti) tradition. The Tamil compendium of devotional songs known as Tirumurai, along with the Vedas, the Shaiva Agamas and “Meykanda” or “Siddhanta” Shastras,[12] form the scriptural canon of Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta…Unquote.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaiva_Siddhanta
Continues….
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