dIxA

Source: TW

“According to Ramakantha the scriptures of the Saiva Siddhanta teach that salvation can only be attained by ritual. To be bound to the cycle of death and rebirth (samsara) is to be ignorant of one’s true nature, but knowledge of that nature cannot bring that bondage to an end.

This is because the absence of liberated self-awareness is caused by impurity (mala). This cannot be removed by knowledge, because it is a substance (dravya). Being a substance it can be destroyed only by action and the only action capable of destroying it is the system of ritual prescribed in the Saiva scriptures.

  • Alexis Sanderson, Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions, Pg. 691.

This prose by Sanderson is a slight misrepresentation of the Siddhānta’s message. The fundamental contrast is between knowledge and Śiva’s action, not formal ritual per se.

dIxA as shakti

The word for Initiation, “Dīkșā” is actually understood by the great Master Sadyojyoti (who predates Rāmakaņțha & is revered by him) in the broader sense of Śiva’s action. Dīkșā, in fact, is Śiva’s innate power (Śakti) that is inseparable from Śiva and is Śiva qua in relation to all other existents.

Various types of ritual initiation (depending on background of initiate) are species of “Śiva’s action” or different forms of Śakti. The idea is that a substance obscuring one’s own innate nature beginninglessly needs to be made non-operative through Śiva’s action/Śakti.

This is why Bhagavān Sadyojyoti leaves it open for Dīkșā to mean Śiva’s knowledge, will/desire, etc as Śiva’s will/knowledge/desire to grace are all nothing my but mere names of Śakti.

dIxA necessity case

And yet, dIxA requires positive action from the to-be-dIxita, right?

  1. Strictly speaking, there is no requirement for any action on the soul’s part for Śiva’s grace to take the “salvific mode” for a soul. Śiva, out of His own, sovereign will, conditions the operation of this particular modality of His omnipresent grace on the ripeness of the particular Malaśakti binding that soul.

  2. Based on your question, it appears that you are not taking up the broader, non-ritual meaning of Dīkșā but the more popular sense of ritual initiation.

One may argue that a to-be-Dīkșita needs to take up the positive step of approaching a Guru. But even in this case, there is no “requirement” per se in as much the desire to seek a Guru and the efforts taken to go to him flow naturally from the operation of the anugraha mode of Śivaśakti, which happens when that soul’s specific Malaśakti is appropriately pakva for such operation to occur.

If the substance, Malaśakti, ripens after a particular series of experiences, Śivaśakti will operate in the Anugraha mode (Śaktipāta) and if this Śaktipāta is intense, that soul will attain Paramukti immediately, regardless of where it is.

Knowledge as action

It is often reiterated that one of the major differences between the dualist Siddhanta and nondualist schools of Saivism is that the latter gives more importance to knowledge, in the sense that it sees liberation primarily as the knowledge or realisation of one’s identity with Śiva. By contrast, dualist Saivas maintain that initiation must always involve and depends on external (i.e. not internal, mentally performed) ritual, which removes (most) impurities in the same way as one removes a cataract from the eye. Now this opposition is certainly present in exegetical texts,” but it does not imply that knowledge in general is more important for the nondualists. For, as SANDERSON (1995:40- 41) points out, dualist exegetes claim that the practitioner can remove impurities that remain after initiation only if his daily ritual is also a cognitive action. It is nevertheless true that according to this theory, knowledge works as a kind of action and not as knowledge.

vaidika-dharma

  1. However, it is foolish for a bound soul to rely on this arbitrary trajectory to take place for it to attain Paramukti. Therefore, a soul is encouraged to adhere to the Vaidika Dharma so that it will develop a small amount of Bhakti for Śiva as a result of such vaidika karmānușțhāna, which will eventually lead the soul to that turning point: Malaśakti starts to attain pakvatva, resulting in the desire to approach a guru and attain Śivamukti.