Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/275

 IV.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 259 four hands holds the severed head of a demon, the other a sword, implying the punishment of sin, but the third is stretched out in the act of giving a boon and the fourth offers benediction. The last two indicate her protection of those who resign themselves to her care. This world, ever-moving towards destruction, is symbolised in Cakti; but she gives hope also that the virtuous will be saved. Beyond the sphere of virtue and vice, of pleasure and pain, is the perma- nent principle of the spiritual world—Civa who is immovable representing Eternity in the midst of all that shifts. The Yogis who try to attain a stage where pleasure does not please and sorrow does not cause pain, aim at the spiritual condition of Civa. Thus they arrive at the permanent and_ abiding principle, and are not subject to the joys and pains that flesh is heir to. At this stage one may sav. that he is one 111. 1116 01৮11. 9017 0 শিবোহং শিবোহং (1 2) 01৮৭, 1 2 01৮. The noble qualities of Civa to which we alluded in a previous chapter, acted on the multitude as a great attraction, but gradually as this religion took a subtle and mystic form, it grew unintelligible to the masses. Let us here deal with its popular aspects as they are found in our old literature. We referred, in a previous chapter, to the songs of Civa—Civa according to popular notions, divest- ed of all glory, sunk into a peasant, a beggar and a Ganja smoker. He drank Siddhi and ate the fruit of the Dhutura. An agricultural character” was attributed to him by those rustic bards who com- posed the pastoral songs. The Pauranik conception The popular Caivism.