Acarya Haribhadras Comparative Studies in Yoga

Author(s): Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Z_Vijay_Vallabh_suri_Smarak_Granth_012060.pdf

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ACHARYA HARIBHADRA'S COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN YOGA
the view of an exponent of the Sänkhya system, named Gopendra, who holds that the purusa, the principle of consciousness, does not even enquire about the path of realization unless and until the prakṛti has turned her face from him. It is the nature of the spirit to get disentangled from matter. But this disentanglement is possible only when its conditions are fulfilled. However pious and virtuous and spiritually advanced one may appear to be, one is not capable of yoga unless one has cut the knot and attained the requisite purification of the soul. After such state has been achieved the soul is fit for the preliminary preparation (purvasevā) for yoga. This preliminary preparation consists in the worship of the preceptor and the gods, good conduct, austerity, and absence of hatred for the final emancipation.50 The soul now attains right attitude and becomes a bodhisattva.31 All the characteristics of a bodhisattva are present in such soul. Thus the soul henceforth does no more fall to the depth wherein heretofore it had been. A bodhisattva does not commit an evil act from the depth of his heart, but if he does so at all he does only physically. There is no more spiritual degeneration. The soul which has cut the knot fulfils this characteristic. It now takes interest exclusively in the well-being of others, acquires wisdom, treads upon the right path, becomes noble, and appreciates merits. It has now attained enlightenment (bodhi). But if the conception of a bodhisattva is narrowed down and made to include only those rare souls who are destined to redeem the world from sin and suffering, Haribhadra says that the Jaina conception of a tirthankara fulfils that ideal.34 There are some souls who are naturally inclined towards universal well-being and are destined to be tirthankaras (founders of religion). Such souls are bodhisattvas in the true sense of the term.
In this connection, Haribhadra distinguishes three categories of souls destined to be emancipated. The first category comprises such souls who, as soon as they experience the first dawn of enlightenment on the annihilation of the knot, make determination to redeem the world of its suffering by means of the enlightenment and work strenuously in accordance with
29. Ibid., 100-101.
30. pūrvaseva tu tantrajñair gurudevadipujanam
sadācāras tapo muktyadveşaś ce ha prakirtitāḥ-YBi, 109.
31. YBi, 270.
32. Cf. Ibid., 271.
33. Cf. Ibid., 272. 34. Ibid., 274,
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