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Kundakunda: The Pravacanasāra 205
All this amounts to saying that the essential cause of bondage is the mistaken belief that the jīva has some connection with what is ajīva. Such a belief constitutes aśuddhopayoga, which is destroyed by the realisation of the jīva's true identity (and thus of the 'mistake') through meditation on its true nature. This seems perilously close to saying that bondage is not simply maintained by delusive behaviour - the product, among other things, of mohaniyākarman - but that it is a delusion. If the jīva, by definition, cannot act or cause action, if it cannot really have any connection with matter, how can it ever have been bound? Unsurprisingly, the Pravacanasāra does not pursue this here, but starts a technical discussion of the nature of atoms (2:70ff.). 71
ii) Dhyāna and jñāna Pravacanasāra 2:98-2:108 provides a cluster of gāthās on meditation, the nature of the self and knowledge. I have commented on the significance of some of these for Kundakunda's doctrine of liberation already;72 here I shall consider their relation to dhyāna and jñāna.
Pravacanasāra 2:98 states that to identify the self with body and wealth (i.e. with paradravya, the not-self) is to resort to the wrong road (ummaggam / unmārgam). According to the Tattvadīpikā, such identification brings about a transformation into the impure self; it is this which is the 'wrong road'.73 Thus, 'from the point of view of the
svatantraśariravānmanaḥ-kāraṇācetanadravyatvam asti, tani khalu mām kartāram antareņāpi kriyamāṇāni - TD on Pravac. 2:68.
can mean to characterise manas as 'unconscious' or the product of 'unconscious substance' is not made clear. But the physical manas of Sāmkhya, a product of unconscious praksti, and totally separate from the purusa, may provide a model here.
71 Sāmkhya, of course, has precisely the same problem, one which is inherited by Vedānta.
72 See above, pp. 140-143, 147-149. 73 aśuddhātmapariņatirūpam unmārgam - TD on 2:98.
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