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## Pinḍaniyukti: An Observation
**Equipment Pollution (Upakaraṇapūti)**
Equipment is referred to as that which is helpful, such as a stove for cooking food and a spoon for serving food. A stove mixed with Ādhākarmic dust and a plate and spoon touched by Ādhākarmic food are examples of equipment pollution.
**Food Pollution (Āhārapūti)**
If an Ādhākarmic spoon is removed from a plate, the food on the plate is considered pure. However, if even pure food is served with an Ādhākarmic spoon, it becomes Āhārapūti. Similarly, even if a cook is not Ādhākarmic, if they stir Ādhākarmic food and then serve pure food, that pure food is also considered Āhārapūti.
**Drink Pollution (Bhaktapānapūti)**
Mixing Ādhākarmic vegetables, salt, asafoetida, mustard seeds, and cumin seeds in pure buttermilk, or adding spices to it, is Bhaktapānapūti. If a vessel in which Ādhākarmic food was previously cooked is not cleaned thoroughly three times (Kalpātra), and food is cooked or placed in it, it is considered Bhaktapānapūti. Another interpretation of Kalpātra is that after cooking food in the vessel three times and removing it, the food cooked for the fourth time is pure. The smoke that arises from putting gram flour, asafoetida, and cumin seeds on smokeless embers pollutes the plate and buttermilk, etc., which is included in equipment pollution.
**Subtle Pollution (Sūkṣmapūti)**
Subtle pollution arises from fuel, fire particles, smoke, and vapor. The elements of smoke, smell, etc., are present everywhere, so it is not possible to avoid them. In the context of subtle pollution, the author raises a question: How is it possible to avoid subtle pollution when sometimes even after washing a vessel three times, its smell does not go away? In response, the author of the Niyukti says that just as a substance is not considered contaminated or discarded when it is touched by the smell of impurity coming from a distance, similarly, the character is not corrupted by the touch of the particles of smell associated with Ādhākarma. Ācārya Malayagiri clarifies this by saying that smell is subtle pollution. It is only to be understood, it cannot be avoided because the atoms of smell are present throughout the universe.
**Footnotes:**
1. Piṇi 113, 113/2.
2. Piṇi 113/3.
3. Piṇi 113/4.
4. Nibha 809, Cū p. 65.
5. Piṇi 114, Mavṛ p. 85.
6. Piṇi 117/2.
7. Mavṛ p. 86, 87.