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482 The Philosophy of the Bhagavad-gitā [CH. driving power of the vidhi. This view differs from the view of Kumārila in this, that it does not suppose that the propulsion of the Vedic command takes effect in a twofold bhāvanā, through the whole process of the conception and the materialization of the action in accordance with the Vedic commands. The force of the command is exhausted in prompting us to action and arousing in us the inward resolution (ākūta) to obey the command. The actual performance of the action comes as a natural consequence (artha). The force of the vidhi has a field of application only when our ordinary inclinations do not naturally lead us to the performance of action. Vidhi, therefore, operates merely as a law of command which has to be obeyed for the sake of the law alone, and it is this psychological factor of inward resolution to obey the law that leads to the performance of action.
Mandana, in his Vidhi-viveka, discusses the diverse views on the significance of vidhi. He interprets vidhi as a specific kind of prompting (pravartanā). He distinguishes the inner volitional intention of attaining an end and its translation into active effort leading to muscular movements of the body. Pravartanā here means the inner volitional direction of the mind towards the performance of the action, as well as actual nervous changes which are associated with it. The command of the Vedas naturally brings with it a sense of duty or of “oughtness" (kartavyatā), and it is this sense of kartavyatā that impels people to action without any reference to the advantages and benefits that may be reaped by such actions. The psychological state associated with such a feeling of “oughtness" is said to be of the nature of instincts (pratibhā). It is through an instinctive stimulus to work, proceeding from the sense of “oughtness," that the action is performed.
The Nyāya doctrine differs from the above view of vidhi as a categorically imperative order and holds that the prompting of the Vedic commands derives its force from our desire for the attainment of the benefits that we might reap if we acted in accordance with them. So the ultimate motive of the action is the attainment of pleasure or the avoidance of pain, and it is only with a view to attaining the desired ends that one is prompted to follow the Vedic
1 Bhāva-dharma eva kaścit samīhita-sādhanānuguņo vyāpāra-padārthah; tad yathā ätmano buddhy-ādi-janana-pravịttasya manah-samyoga eva'yam bhāvadharmaḥ tadvad atrāpi spandas tad-itaro và bhāva-dharmaḥ pravrtti-jananā'nukülatayā vyāpāra-višeşaḥ pravartanā. Vācaspati's Nyāya-kanikä on Vidhviveka, pp. 243, 244.
