Karma Mimansa

Author(s): Berriedale Keith
Publisher: Berriedale Keith

Page 81

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THE KARMA-MIMAMSA
to be localised. The further Vedānta contention, that the sun, though one, appears by reflection in different substances to be endowed with diverse qualities, is also rebutted by the observation that the qualities, which appear different, do not really belong to the sun but to the reflecting medium. On this analogy the different qualities appearing in connection with the soul would belong to the bodies which are ensouled, and this conclusion is manifestly contrary to fact, since cognition, etc., are qualities, as we have seen, of soul, not of boay. It Is characteristic, however, of the tendency to import Vedānta conceptions into the Mimämsā that the Sarvasiddhantasangraha (VIII, 39) asserts categorically that there is one real supreme self, of which the individual selves are unreal differentiations.
Such being the nature of the soul of man, his normal lot is to continue in an unending cycle of lives, each determinea from the outset by his actions in previous lives, unless he adopts the path which leads to freedom from this round of existence. The process of this liberation is sketched by Prabhākara; first the man becomes disgusted by the troubles which attend this mortal life; then he realises that even the pleasures of this life are inseparable from pain, both in their attainment and in their disappearance; accordingly he devotes his mind to seeking final release from all worldly things. To this end he abstains from all prohibited acts, which lead to punishment hereafter, and also from all acts which are undertaken for the purpose of attaining some worldly or heavenly guerdon. He also exhausts the accumulated store of his merit and demerit by undergoing the experiences which result thence, Finally he destroys the receptacle of experience by the knowledge of the soul, together with such concomitants as contentment, self-restraint and so forth, all things enjoined by the scriptures to prevent the return of the soul. When all this is accomplished, then the achievement of release is brought about. Prabhākara insists that, as the texts enjoin the knowledge of the soul for no ulterior purpose, it must be understood that the absence of rebirth is the reward of this knowledge. Liberation thus consists in the cessation of the operation of perit or dergent and up total freedom from the body