Thread by @GhorAngirasa

Make what you will of this comment, but the loss of a traditional & rich, formal system like सैद्दान्तिक-शैवम् & consequent perversion of शिव as some “innocent”, carefree, hippie god has resulted in a loss of stature for शिव & शैवम्.

वेदसारमिदं तन्त्रं तस्माद् वैदिक आचरेत् ।
वेदान्तार्थमिदं ज्ञानं सिद्धान्तं परमं शुभम् ॥
-श्रीमन्मकुटागम

“वेद’s essence is this तन्त्र (सिद्धान्तम्); thus one should act in वैदिक [way];
वेदान्त’s essence is this ज्ञान (शिवज्ञानम्); सिद्धान्तम् is supremely auspicious!”

वर्णाश्रमाचारान् मनसापि न लङ्घयेत् ॥ यो यस्मिन्नाश्रमे तिष्ठन् प्राप्तो दीक्षां शिवात्मिकाम् । स तस्मिन्नेव संतिष्ठन् शिवधर्मं च पालयेत् - श्रीमद्भार्गवागमः,

Lost text quoted by one of the greatest आचार्य-s of सिद्धान्त— लक्षद्वयाध्यापक-श्रीमदघोरशिवाचार्य. Meaning 👇🏾

Unlike some वेदबाह्य-“शैव” sects, which gave rites based on alcohol & certain unspeakable degeneracies which, thankfully, were obscured in TN by सिद्धान्तम्, the सिद्धान्तम् promoted a “good” & truly auspicious approach to life.

It made teetotalism mandatory. If you are a सिद्धान्ती, you can’t drink. An entire agrarian class, traditionally assigned to the 4th वर्ण, attained a massive rise in status by eschewing alcohol &, of their own volition, meat as well. Their members even became संस्कृत scholars.+

Imagine a tamizh scholar of सच्छूद्र background in the late 1500s acquiring संस्कृत scholarship in गौडदेश & coming back to TN to write a संस्कृत commentary on a complex आगम text. The सिद्धान्तम् has an exceptional role in the production of a non-ब्राह्मण धार्मिक elite class.

I’m always irritated when Hindus themselves look at शैवम् as something exotic, hippy & non-वैदिक. One of the most famous tamizh saints, अरुणगिरिनाथर्, traces his own past debauchery (before being saved by स्कन्द) to not honoring the reciters of the शिवागम & वेद.

Forgot to mention; said scholar was from Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

Today, many Hindus are conditioned to think “वेदान्त schools are orthodox, शैव religion is a hodgepodge of weird magic & hippie pot smoking culture”.

But before शंकर, earliest of the major वेदान्ती-s was even born; somewhere in काश्मीर, an imaginary opponent asks this question to someone defending the validity of the वेद.

Who was he? He was महामुनि, भगवान्-सद्योज्योति, the earliest known सिद्धान्ताचार्य from काश्मीर. He gives us 2 reasons as to why, as a सिद्धान्त-शैव, it is so important to defend the वेद from नास्तिक-s.

*Translation should be accurate. Anyone wishing to point errors may do so.