Paksilasvamins Introduction To His Nyayabhasyam

SR No.: 269261
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Gerhard Oberhammer
Publisher: Gerhard Oberhammer
Total Pages: 21
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

Page 13

314
ASIAN STUDIES
tween spirit and prime matter)."31 In a second passage, this idea is more clearly expressed: "hānam is the absence of the union (of spirit and prime matter) on account of the absence of this [ignorance). This [hanam) is the emancipation of the spirit [drşeh kaivalyam]. [With this Sūtram is meant that] on account of the absence of ignorance [adarśanam] the union of the intellectual organ [buddhiḥ] and spirit [puruṣaḥ] is absent. [In other words ] there is absolute cessation of bondage. This is the hānam, this the emancipation of the spirit."32 From this definition of hānam, in terms of the Samkhya metaphysics of the Patañjala-Yoga, it is clear that this concept signifies nothing else than liberation (moksah). Thus it is easy to understand, why in the Yoga series of these four concepts there is no other term for liberation. Consequently the Patañjala-Yoga defines the means to attain liberation as "right knowledge" (samyagdarśanam), i.e., "unshakable knowledge of the difference (between spirit and prime matter]."* Such an interpretation of the concepts hānam and hānopāyaḥ, however, was not possible within the framework of the Nyaya philosophy, and thus Paksilasvāmin must have had to give a new interpretation to these concepts. And this he did. He could keep the term upāyaḥ, but giving it the Nyāya sense of means for the attainment of apavargaḥ (= adhigantavyah). In doing so, he also gave a new interpretation to the term samyagdarśanam by changing its original sense of "knowledge of the difference between spirit and prime matter" into that of tattvajñānam, that is to say, “knowledge of the truth about the objects of cognition (prameyāņi, not padārthāh!]."
There was, however, no equivalent for the concept of hānam. Hence Paksilasvāmin avoided it when he expressed his own thoughts (Nbh. 288 ff.) and let it remain only in that place where
31 'Hanam' is the absolute cessation of the union (between prime matter and spirit). Ybh., p. 168, 8.
32 Ibid., p. 203, 5-8. 33 Ibid., p. 168, 8. 34 vive kakhyātir aviplavā hānopūyaḥ, YS., II, 26.