________________
160
The Philosophy of Yāmunācārya (CH. cordance with our desires. Thus He not only gives us freedom of will, but also helps the realization of that will in the external world, and ultimately grants good and evil fruits according to our good and evil deeds!. Thus Iśvara's control over us does not rob us of our freedom of will. Even His favour and disfavour consist in the fulfilment of a devotee's eager desire to be associated with Him, and His disfavour consists in fulfilling the desire of a confirmed sinner, leading him away into worldly pleasures farther from Him. The self is often called jñāna, or consciousness, because of the fact that it is as self-revealing as consciousness. It reveals all objects, when it comes in touch with them through its senses. The souls are, however, all held in Isvara. Rāmānuja had spoken of the souls only as being the body of Iśvara; but Lokācārya and Varavara further hold that, as the external material objects exist for the sake of the souls, so the souls exist for the Isvara; as Man is the end for which the external objects of enjoyment exist, so Isvara is the end (sesa) for which Man exists as the object of His control and support (seși).
The self, though pure in itself, becomes associated with ignorance and worldly desires through coming into touch with matter (acit). Avidyā, or ignorance, here means want of knowledge, misapplication of characteristics, false knowledge, etc. This ignorance, or avidyā, which is the cause of many worldly desires and impure instincts, is generated by the association of the souls with matter; when this association is cut away, the self becomes divested of the avidyā and emancipated.
Rāmānuja says in his V'edārtha-samgraha that Iśvara grants emancipation from worldly bonds to a person, when he, after acquiring true knowledge from the sāstras according to the instruction of good teachers, engages himself every day in self-control, penance, purity; practises forgivingness, sincerity, charity, noninjury; performs all the obligatory and ceremonial duties; refrains from prohibited actions, and afterwards surrenders himself completely to the Lord; praises Him, continually thinks of Him, adores Him, counts His names, hears of His greatness and goodness, speaks of it, worships Him, and has all the darkness of his soul removed
1 See Ramanuja's Bhāşya, XI. 3. 40, 41. 2 See Rāmānuja's Bhāsya, II. III. 29, 30.
See Varavara's commentary on the Tattva-traya, Cit-prakarana.
