Sri Suta: O best among munis! You have asked me what is to be heard & known. I shall share with you that knowledge which has been revealed by Upamanyu on Mount Kailasa. Also, all that I have heard from my Guru I shall try to elucidata to the extent my intellect is illumined. In the Vedas, Agamas, Puranas & Mantra Sastras, it has been firmly established that the one great God Mahadeva, transmuting Himself, appears as the world even as the ocean appears as waves, eddies, etc. Sasisekhara, the One with moon on the crown, appears as the manifold world of forms and names. Without doubt, it is the substratum that the srutis eulogize. The note (sruti2) sung in the beginning of the Vedas is firmly established in their end (Vedanta, which exclusively deals with the knowledge of the Self). Through this sruti the Self is realised. Mahesvara is the Self beyoud the sruti note which is enguled by the din of multiplicity. He is the Self supreme pervading the manifold world (besides being its substrstum). Him alon the Sastras glorify. That Paramesvara whom the munis like Sanake, etc. realise, through Him alone, by the yoga of jnana & vijnan, doubts vanish. The Inquiry of the Sages:- The Sages asled… “O Suta! Pray narrate to us the glories of the devotees of Siva, by which all types of distinctions disappear.” Suta replied: “Manifold are the vagaries of the Kali period in which the Vedas become hidden. Sacrifices disappear, yoga practices become inaccessible; master-disciple tradition is rendered extinct. Amidst such dark times, the sacred stories of the devotees of Siva shine forth, emanating from the heart of the sage Upamanyu who is a devotee of Siva and mercy personified. Listening to these stories, true devotion is generated, ultimately death is overcome and rebirth is erased. Siva Himself creates jiva in his image, propels him into acts leading to multiplicity and finally reabsorbs him into Himself by bestowing devotion. I shall relate to you the stories of those supreme devotees, who have discarded the sin of separate identity.1 upamanyu continued:- “To Sivayogi, those born in Kamalalayam (Tiruvarur); Adi Saivas; those who wear sacred ashes; those from kingdoms such as Cera, Cola, Pandya