(2.) The "overpowerer" is the obscuring power; this is called a "bond" [or matter] in a metaphorical sense, since this energy of Śiva obscures the soul by superintending matter [rather than by itself partaking of the nature of matter]. Thus it has been said-- "Of these I am the chief energy, and the gracious friend of all, "I am metaphorically called _páśa_,[148] because I follow desert." (3.) Action [or rather its consequences, _karman_] as being performed by those who desire the fruit. It is in the form of merit or demerit, like the seed and shoot, and it is eternal in a never-beginning series. As has been said in the Śrímat Kiraṇa-- "As _Mala_ has no beginning, its least actions are beginningless: "If an eternal character is thus established, then what cause could produce any change therein?" (4.) "_Máyá_," because herein as an energy of the Divine Being all the world is potentially contained (_máti_) at a mundane destruction, and again at a creation it all comes (_yáti_) into manifestation, hence the derivation of the name. This has been said in the Śrímat Saurabheya-- "The effects, as a form of the Divine energy, are absorbed therein at a mundane destruction, "And again at a renovation it is manifested anew in the form of effects as _kalá_, &c."[149] Although much more might be added on this topic, yet we stop here through fear of extending this treatise too far. Thus have the three categories been declared,--the Lord, the soul, and matter. A different mode of treating the subject is found in the Jñánaratnávalí, &c., in such lines as-- "The Lord, knowledge, ignorance, the soul, matter, and the cause "Of the cessation thereof,--these are collectively the six categories." But our readers must seek for full information from the work itself. Thus our account of the system is complete. E. B. C. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 112: Colebrooke speaks of the _Paśupati-sástra_ (_Maheśvara-siddhánta or Sivágama_), as the text-book of the Páśupata sect. The Ágamas are said to be twenty-eight (see their names in the Rev. T. Foulkes' "Catechism of the Śaiva Religion").] [Footnote 113: "There must be three eternal entities, Deity, soul, matter;" "as the water is co-eternal with the sea and the salt with the water, so soul is co-eternal with the Deity, and _páśa_ is eternally co-existent with soul" (J. A. O. S. iv. pp. 67, 85). In p. 58 we find the _advaita_ of the Vedánta attacked. In p. 62 it is said that the soul is eternally entangled in matter, and God carries on his five operations (see _infra_) to disentangle it, bringing out all that is required for previous desert.]