In Virashaivism Sat-sthala represents the path of the pilgrim. The Virashaiva or Lingayat teachers address the Divine as Sthala. The Divine is really unlimited but the inherent Energy in the Divine is responsible for the limitation in the unlimited. Hence the Supreme or Shiva bifercates himself into Linga and Anga; and the divine energy into Shakti and Bhakti. Sat-sthala is hierarchy where Upasana grows gaining step by step in content till the apparent duality between Anga and Linga is vanished and Linga-Anga-Samarasya or at-one-ment is achieved.
The cause of evil is one of the great problems of life. The statesman and the priest, the teacher and the parent are engaged in finding out and removing the cause of evil. Different evils are known to have different causes. But it is the ultimate cause of evil that philosophy tries to discover so as to get at the power that an counter-act it. One philosophy attributes evil to desire, another to selfishness, a third one to ignorance, a fourth one to Satan and so on. Some desires are good and others are bad but desires are not ultimate causes. The ultimate desire is the desire to avoid pain. But pain is a relative term; one man’s pain is another man’s pleasure. There are some who find pleasure in sacrificing themselves for the good of others, of their community or country. Pain being thus indefinite, the desire to avoid pain is also indefinite. To say that the ultimate cause of pain is an indefinite thing is to admit ignorance. But ignorance is merely absence of knowledge and is not a thing that has positive
existence. A child is said to have put its hand into fire because it did not know that it would burn. The fact is that the child thought that the fire was a beautiful thing and wanted to take it. The real cause is its desire to reach beautiful things. Wrong knowledge may be a cause and not ignorance.
Shaiva as well as Virashaiva philosophy cuts the Gardian knot by denying the very existence of evil. Though Shaivism denies the existence of evil, society not only affirms its existence but works for its eradication. This difference between religious philosophy and social philosophy is due to the fact that the reality with which religion is concerned is the soul, whereas that of society is the body and the worldly possessions. What society calls evil is not non-existent but is the error or wrong of philosophy, and this error or wrong is traced to the insufficiency either of knowing, willing or doing, which are the three activities of the soul. The soul then would function correctly if it received sufficient energy. The supply of energy comes from Maya or the operative power which freely offers all that the soul wants. The allowance is sufficient but the whole of it does not reach the soul. There must be a factor involved in the process which blocks the passage and prevents the flow of energy that is offered. This same thing requires a name and that the Shaiva philosophy calls it Anava which means an atom.
To convert this anutva into vibhutva, atomicity into all pervasiveness is the secret of Sat-sthala.
In Virashaivism Sat-sthala represents the path of the pilgrim. The Virashaiva or Lingayat teachers address the Divine as Sthala. The Divine is really unlimited but the inherent Energy in the Divine is responsible for the limitation in the unlimited. Hence the Supreme or Shiva bifercates himself into Linga and Anga; and the divine energy into Shakti and Bhakti. We must mark the meaning of Bhakti. Bhakti generally means the feeling of devotion or attachement to a godhead. But here Bhakti means Upasana or worship which represents a spirit of self-surrender. This is not to say that worship can be performed without devotional feelings, for these feelings are at the bottom of worship. Linga is Upasya, the worshipped, Anga is Upasaka, the worshipper, and Bhakti is Upasana, the worship.
Sat-sthala is hierarchy where Upasana grows gaining step by step in content till the apparent duality between Anga and Linga is vanished and Linga-Anga-Samarasya or at-one-ment is achieved.
This article - Shat-sthala - is taken from H.H.Mahatapasvi Shri Kumarswamiji-s book, 'Mirror of Virashaivism'.
This website can be best viewed in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 & higher or in Opera 9.52 with screen resolution 1024 by 768 pixels.
