Karma Mimansa

Author(s): Berriedale Keith
Publisher: Berriedale Keith

Page 73

THE KARMA-MIMAMSA
self, which, on the theory of the natural character of nescience, is out of the question. Nor is the Samkhya doctrine of many selves and nature any more tenable as a theory of creation. The beginning of creation is held to be due to a disturbance in the equilibrium of the three constituents which make up nature. But how can such a disturbance take place at a first creation, when there are no potencies due to men's actions demanding fruition? Even at subsequent creations, how do latent potentialities by themselves become fruitful without any consciousness to direct them? And, if they do attain fruition, the Samkhya theory of liberation by knowledge is without value, since the potencies will remain able to come again into activity. Knowledge, it must be recognised, can never give freedom from bondage, which can be attained only by the exhaustion of action, for which the Sāmkhya metaphysics affords no adequate possibility, owing to the infinite potentiality of nature.
Though the existence of a creator is denied, the Mīmāṁsā accepts without reserve the doctrine of the existence of the self or soul, and Sabarasyämin elaborates the case for its existence; Prabhākara and Kumārila both develop the theme in close accordance with his views The necessity of the existence of the self for the Mīmāmsă rests on its fundamental assumption that the sacrifices are performed to secure, in many cases, a reward not in this life. There must, therefore, be an eternal entity, distinct from the body, the sense organs, and cognitions, which is both the doer of actions and the reaper of their reward. It is not unnaturally objected that there is a strong presumption against claiming eternity for something which suffers change, but the more serious objection is made that men do not realise, when they reap results, the actions which brought these about, thus invalidating the value of the assumed continuity, and that there is nothing unnatural in a man determining to do an act which will lead to evıl results in the future, secure in the knowledge that, when
1 Mimarsá Sūtra, pp. 18-24 ; Prakaranapancikä, pp. 141-60, Slokavårttiko, pp. 689-728; Mánameyodaya, pp. 78-84,