In fact, the Árśa Dharma ["Religion of the Sages", Aryan Religion] was not dharma at all – it was nothing but a geo-sentiment, sometimes combined with socio-sentiment. This continued for a long period. Shiva observed that this was not dharma at all. He looked deeply into human psychology and found that human beings do not really want happiness – they want absolute peace: peace is better than happiness. People do not attain peace by performing yajiṋas [sacrifices] nor by sacrificing animals in the sacrificial fire. They may please their palates by eating meat, but they will not attain peace in this way. Shiva showed human beings how to attain peace; and that path to supreme peace should not be called a path of ordinary attainment, but of supreme attainment. Here the spiritual realization is aparokśánúbhuti – is direct. This path, as shown by Shiva, is known as Shaeva Dharma [Shaivism].

Of course, Tantra did exist before Shiva, but it was scattered, not well-organized. As I told you a little earlier, Shiva made everything systematic and regulated. He brought about a harmonious synthesis between those scattered Tantras and the people’s spiritual urges for supreme fulfilment, and created His Shaeva Dharma, which was above all sorts of geo-sentiment and socio-sentiment. This path of Shiva, which was a happy blending of the existing Tantra and His practical processes, was an ideal adjustment between the objective world and the subjective world. In spite of that, this cult was not able to survive the ravages of time. One of the reasons was that in those days it was not possible to write anything down because script had not yet been invented. Knowledge was conveyed orally, not by writing. The Vedas could not be written due to the same difficulty.

Much later, when the Vedas were written down, many portions had already been lost. However much we may try to find those lost portions of the Vedas, they can unfortunately never be recovered. Many of the teachings of Shiva were also lost for the same reason, because people had no knowledge of the alphabet. This Shiva Tantra inspired people to move towards the supreme truth on the one hand, and on the other hand it exhorted people, "Do not neglect the practical world. Maintain a congenial adjustment with the external world." His instructions were, "Varttámanesu vartteta [Live in the present]. Try to penetrate as deeply as you can into your mind, keep moving inwards – Caraeveti, caraeveti [Proceed on, proceed on]. But do not forget the realities of the external world, because if you ignore the external realities, your internal peace will also be disturbed."

This Shaeva Dharma became the essential dharma of India. In this dharma no one was ignored – neither the non-Aryans nor the women nor the untouchables.

In the Vedic Age, women as a class were neglected and treated as mere commodities of enjoyment; whereas in the age of Shiva they were proclaimed as a class of mothers. As the influence of Shiva was comparatively great in Bengal, there we still find the custom of addressing unknown ladies as Má ["Mother"]. In Bengali, aunts are called mási-má [mother’s sister], pishi-má [father’s sister], etc.; that is, the word má is respectfully added when addressing women. And as the matriarchal system is still prevalent in Bengal to some extent, there the women are not altogether separated from the father’s lineage. After marriage their gotra [clan] changes, no doubt, but they still have some relation with their father’s lineage. For this reason a nephew, a sister’s son, inherits the properties of his maternal uncle if he dies without heirs.

Shaeva Dharma is the dharma for attaining Parama Puruśa, and thus there is no external ritual in it. It does not enjoin any ritualistic offering of ghee, or any sacrifice of animals’ blood in yajiṋa; it is not a path of self-gratification. The followers of Shaeva Dharma proclaimed in a thundering voice that dharma is the path leading to supreme attainment – not the path of animal enjoyment.