Adhyatmabindu

Author(s): Mitranandvijay, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 16

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point of niscayanaya there is no possibility of spiritual evolution. It is possible from the standpoint of vyasahāranaya.
The practical standpoint is indispensable for educating the people, For instance, those who are spiritually unadvanced do not understand what the term 'atman' (=soul) stands for; so, the learned take recourse to the practical standpoint and explain the term 'atman' as meaning that which struggles (alatt) for the attainment of darsana, jñāna and caritra or that which attains different modes, viz. sthavaratva, trasatva, etc. In the first case though the soul in fact is not different from darśana, jñāna, căritra it is described in such a manner as if it were different from them. In the second case though the soul does not really transform into those modes yet it is so described. The learned has to adopt this mode of expression to educate the people. This comes very near to the Buddhist doctrine of upayakaušala. (6-8)
Danger in our sole reliance on either of them: Those who rely solely on either of the two are ignorant of the doctrine of Non-absolutism (advada).
Those who rely solely on practical standpoint have no faith in the pure soul presented by the definitive standpoint. They are so much attached to the religious practices that they could not make spiritual progress. They can attain the auspicious condition as a result of religious practices. But they can never attain the pure spiritual condition which follows the renunciation of all religious practices and virtues. They mistake means for the end.
Similarly, those who rely solely on difinitive standpoint steep into the mire of hypocrisy and self-deception. They consider themselves to be free from all impurities. They deceive themselves by believing that they do not enjoy sense-pleasure even when they enjoy all sorts of sense-pleasure. They degenerate into hypocrite par excellence. They despise all religious activities and virtues. They forget that one has to pass through auspicious condition of religious activities and virtues in order to reach the final destination. Though it has to be left behind by one who wants to proceed further, yet it is a necessary station in the spiritual journey. We cannot renounce what we have not acquired. Similarly, we cannot renounce virtues1 or auspicious condition if we have not attained them. Though the minds of those who rely solely on definitive standpoint reject the duality of end and means' yet they have not attained the state where their difference melts away. Hence they are deprived of the fruits of both the conditions. They do not perform good deeds lest they come to accumulate auspicious karmas. Thus these persons are at a stage which is even lower than the one at which those who solely rely on practical standpoint are. They are steeped into 1. For the concept of dharmasamnyasa one may refer to Ac. Haribhadra's Yogad ṛṣṭisamuccaya, verse 181.