Disclaimer: This translation does not guarantee complete accuracy, please confirm with the original page text.
## Five Characteristics of Samyaktvam
**Yoga Shastra, Second Light, Verse 15**
It is a great sorrow when those who are attached to worldly things are still considered worthy of respect. 1 For simple-minded people who are easily misled take refuge in them and continue on the path of downfall and destruction. 14.
Thus, the abandonment of *kudev*, *kuguru*, and *kudharma* and the realization of *sudev*, *suguru*, and *sudharma* are beautifully explained as *samyaktvam*. But from the perspective of *nishchayadristi*, *samyaktvam* is the pure result of a good soul; it is itself intangible, we cannot see it, but we can know it through its five signs. Therefore, now we describe these five signs.
71. *Sham*, *sanveg*, *nirved*, *anukampa*, and *astikya* are the five characteristics by which *samyaktvam* is well recognized. 15.
**Explanation:**
Even indirect *samyaktvam* residing in one's own soul or in the soul of another can be known through the five signs of *sham*, *sanveg*, *nirved*, *anukampa*, and *astikya* in external behavior. The nature of these five is as follows:
1. **Sham:** *Sham* means *prasham* or the non-arising of cruel, infinite *kṣayās*. It means restraining *kṣayās* from arising, either by their nature or by knowing and seeing the bitter fruits of their maturation. It is said that knowing the inauspicious results of *karma* (karma-phala), the practice of *upshamabhav* (state of calmness) in the soul, even not getting angry at the offender is *prasham*. Many *ācāryas* call the calming of the itch of anger and the thirst for worldly objects *sham*. The question arises: how can a being who has attained *samyagdarshan* and serves the *sadhus* have the itch of anger and the thirst for worldly objects? Then how can we consider Emperor Shrenik and Shri Krishna, who were seen to have worldly desires and the itch of anger, to have *sham* as described above? And if they did not have *sham*, how can we consider them to have *samyaktvam*? The solution is this: it is not that they lacked *sham* and therefore did not have *samyaktvam*. Just as there is fire covered with ash without smoke in a blacksmith's furnace. There is no smoke in that fire. In this regard, according to *nyāyashastra*, the rule (vyapti) is that wherever there is smoke, there is fire, because where there is a sign (ling), there is the signified (lingi), provided that the sign has been ascertained by examination. Therefore, it is said that where there is smoke - a sign (ling), there is definitely fire (lingi) with the sign. But where there is the signified with the sign (lingi), it is not necessary for the sign (ling) to be present. Just as sometimes fire with red embers is also without smoke; there is no rule for the presence of smoke as a sign (ling) in the signified (lingi). The relationship between the sign and the signified is in the reverse of the rule. From this perspective, both Shri Krishna and King Shrenik were definitely *samyaktvīs*, but the sign of *prasham* was sometimes present and sometimes not. Compared to the three rounds of infinite *kṣayās*, their *kṣayās* were *prasham*, but compared to the round of *sanjwalan* *kṣayās*, anger, etc., were not *prasham*. Therefore, in that respect, even though both of these great souls were *samyaktvīs*, they had the existence of *sanjwalan* anger, itch, and subtle worldly desires. It is also clear that sometimes *sanjwalan* *kṣayās* are also intense and have results similar to infinite *kṣayās*.
2. **Sanveg:** *Sanveg* means the desire for liberation. A being with *samyagdristi* considers the worldly pleasures of a king and Indra to be mixed with sorrow and therefore considers them to be sorrow. They consider the pleasure of liberation to be the only true pleasure. It is also said that a *samyaktvī* soul considers the pleasure of a human and Indra to be sorrow in their heart (antar) and does not pray for anything else without liberation with *sanveg*; (Shra. Pra. 56) that is the one who has *sanveg*.
3. **Nirved:**
Dispassion from the world is *nirved*. A soul with *samyagdristi* is deeply disgusted with sorrow and bad destiny, birth... 1. Even if there is such a muni in the garb of a Jain muni, they are also invisible.
-
79