Pāśa (, lit. "bondage", "fetter") is one of the three main components considered in

Shaivism Shaivism (, , ) is one of the major Hindu denominations, Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the Para Brahman, supreme being. It is the Hinduism#Demographics, second-largest Hindu sect after Vaishnavism, constituting about 385 million H ...

. It is defined as whole of the existence, manifest and unmanifest. According to

Shaiva Siddhanta Shaiva Siddhanta () is a form of Shaivism popular in a pristine form in Tamilnadu and Sri Lanka and in a Tantrayana syncretised form in Vietnam and Indonesia (as Siwa Siddhanta). It propounds a devotional philosophy with the ultimate goal of e ...

, Pati (the supreme being), ( atmans) and Pasha are eternal, self-consistent, neither distinguishable nor indivisible triad in the nature.Sujith Ravindran, (2010), MATURE MASCULINITY: Man's Inner Essence, p.35,

Tether

The Shaivite three components are easily understandable as pashu (litt. cow), pasha (litt. rope) and pati (litt. cow-herd). All atmans or pashus are eternally tethered by pasha and they don't know their destination. There comes pati to rear them towards the

Moksha ''Moksha'' (; , '), also called ''vimoksha'', ''vimukti'', and ''mukti'', is a term in Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism for various forms of emancipation, liberation, '' nirvana'', or release. In its soteriological and eschatologic ...

. This pati differ from ordinary cowherd as he doesn't obtain any advantages either by growing or shepherding cattle, and pashus cannot realize anything with their limited movement caused by pasha.

References

{{Shaivism, state=collapsed Shaivism Theistic Indian philosophy