The word ‘Śhiva’ is used in the Vachana literature at least in three senses.
1. In a very restricted sense it applies to Śūnya [ಶೂನ್ಯ].
2. In another restricted sense it applies to Śhiva-sādākhya (also sometimes called Sadyōjāta [ಸದ್ಯೋಜಾತ]), who, with the assistance of Kriyā-Śhakti, creates the world including conscious and non-conscious beings. Śhiva in this sense does not maintain or retract the world.
3.In a very loose sense the word applies to Śhiva who creates, maintains and destroys the world and responds to the devotional call of the devotees (see also LINGA, ŚHIVA-ŚHAKTI-SAMPUTA).

ŚHIVA-ŚHAKTI-SAMPUṬA: [ಶಿವ-ಶಕ್ತಿ-ಸಂಪುಟ]

This term literally means Śhiva-Śhakti-complex. The complex is, in fact, a synthesis of Śhiva, the infinite consciousness, and Śhakti, the material cause of the universe. Through the two principles are in nature different, they are one ontologically. There is an inseparable relationship between the two, such that one without the other does not exist. Though the Lingayats speak of Śūnya (or featureless Śhiva), the Śhakti really exists in it, though in an unmanifest manner. Śhakti cannot exist apart from Śhiva (or Parashiva), just as a quality cannot exist apart from a substance, or just as a part cannot exist apart from the whole to which it belongs. Nor can it function without the guidance of Śhiva. This is the reason why Śhakti is regarded as a quality of Śhiva and not vice versa.

However, the statement that Śhiva and Śhakti are related does not mean that the two come from different directions before they establish their inseparable relationship. Their relationship is beginningless and endless.

The relationship is compared to the body-soul relationship. In fact many Vachana -writers think of the world as a body of Parashiva called aṣṭatanu [ಅಷ್ಟತನು] (eightfold body), i.e., body made of eight elements - earth, water, fire, air, space, soul, the sun and the moon. This analogy means that just as a living body is pervaded and controlled by a soul in it, so also the eightfold body is pervaded and controlled by Śhiva. Thus the world, including everything in it, is a Śhiva-Śhakti complex.