Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/274

 238 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. | Chap. ground, as the masses did not comprehend its speculative features. The enlightened Caivas attempted to reach a stage where the human soul is said to become so elevated as to be identical with the divine spirit. শিবোহং শবোহৎ, 1 27) Civa, 1 am Civa, Was uttered by the great propounder of the (91৮৪, cult Cri Caivaism. Cankaracharyya in the 7th century, and his fol- lowers tried to imitate Iam. Civa represents, in the eyes of the enlightened, a spiritual principle, which to use a_ philosophical expression, .may be called the noumenon. lhe 89 phenomenal world is attributed to Cakti—the ec goddess Chandi, of whom 1 have already spoken. Cakti is ever-active, creating the never-ceasing ulusions of the visible universe. All that we see around, is produced by Cakti, who acts upon our senses and causes our sorrows and pleasures. But Civa is inactive—passionless, feelingless, unknown and unknowable, 71774 or without qualities. Yet C@akti could not produce the visible, ever- changing forms of this universe without coming in touch with Giva, the noumenon or the permanent principle. To the shifting phenomena of the world— to our everchanging visible environment, Civa gives a permanence ;—so that when one spring Is over, its permanent principle, worked by Gakti, brings on a new spring iu the place of the old,—the blooming flower in the place of the faded one. Civa, then, is the great bridge that connects the lost with the found,—the universe that changes with the universe that is unchanging. The Puranas represent the igure of Civaas lying like a corpse on which dances Vakti or Kali in destructive ecstacy. One of her