Creation is not a necessity to Siva; it is a manifestation of His freedom (svatantrya). Siva may not create the world - Creation completely depends upon the will of Siva.

 

Eye of the Cosmos taken from the Hubble telescope

Sri Kamalakara Mishra: The manifestation of the world, or the idam ("this"), is the freedom (svātantrya) of the Aham ("I") or the Absolute. There is a misunderstanding of the Tantric position that Creation is a logical implication or necessary outcome of Siva or Sakti. This misunderstanding is based on Tantric statements to the effect that the world is the nature (svabhāva) of Siva-Sakti or that Siva, out of His sport (līlā), again and again creates, preserves, and destroys the world (carīkarti barībharti sañjarīharti lilayā).

The Tantric statement that Creation is the nature of Śiva or parāśakti is made in the same way that we say that playing is the nature of a child. This does not mean that playing is a necessity or compulsion for the child or that the child plays all day long. It simply means that there is no cause or motive for the play - it is just natural for the child to play. It does not contradict the fact that the act of playing is the freedom of the child. We can very well say, on the one hand, that playing is the freedom of the child, and, on the other hand, that playing is the nature of the child. When it is said that creation is the nature of Siva, it simply means that for creation there is no motive or cause on the part of Siva; creation arises out of His free sportive nature and Siva always creates out of His freedom.

If we take Creation to be a necessary act of Siva or Sakti, it will go against the concept of freedom (svatantrya) that is basic to Tantrism. Moreover, the Tantras declare Creation to be the freedom (svā- tantrya) of Śiva in unequivocal terms. Furthermore Śiva, or Śiva- Śakti, is basically regarded as transcendent (anuttara). Šiva cannot be transcendent if Creation is a compulsion for Him.

The misunderstanding that the act of creation is necessary for Śiva arises from overlooking the distinction between śakti and svarūpa-śakti. In the Tantric tradition cit and ānanda are said to be the nature (svarūpa or svarūpa-śakti), whereas the triad of icchā-jñāna-kriyā, which pertains to the creation of the world, is said to be power (śakti) but not svarūpa-śakti. Cit and ānanda are svarūpa, but the triad of icchā-jñāna-kriyā, or the Creation of the world, is not svarūpa in the technical sense of svarūpa-laksana. Creation is based only on the freedom of the Lord. He may enact the cosmic function of creation, maintenance, and so on forever, for some time, or not at all.

In Tantrism, because the world is said to be Sakti or kriyā, and because Sakti or kriyā is said to be the nature of Siva, the world should be regarded as the nature of Siva. But what is overlooked here is the truth that only cit-ānanda, not all Sakti, is the nature (svarūpa) of Siva. Icchā-jñāna-kriyā, which results in Creation, is not the svarupa in the technical sense. '

The activity (kriyā) that is at the svarūpa level (cit-ānanda), and that is illumined in itself, is only aham ("I am"). It is not ahamidam ("I am this"), which comes only at the level of Creation (icchā-jñāna-kriyā). Aham or Self-Consciousness, therefore, is said to be the eternal activity or eternal dynamism (nitya-kriyā or nitya-spanda) of Consciousness. 

The free act of Creation may also be said to be eternal or even innate (svarūpa) in the sense that Siva freely performs the cosmic functions of creation, and so on. Creation is not a necessity to Śiva; it is a manifestation of His freedom (svatantrya). It is meaningless to say that Siva may not be cit-ānanda, for Śiva is nothing but cit-ānanda. However, it is perfectly meaningful to say that Siva may not create the world. Creation completely depends upon the will of Siva.