________________
it turns into an abiding state of mind, constitutes the nature of śāntarasa which is indeed apprehended. Others hold that the Sthayibhāva of śāntarasa is the calming down of all mental activities. But the absence of desires, i.e., JUTTET, when it is taken to imply a complete negation of their existence, it means the absence of all mental activities and as such it cannot be regarded as Bhāva, i.e., a positive mental state. But, if it is understood in the sense of exclusion of all desires, then it agrees with our view. Because exclusion of something with the possibility of including its opposite is acceptable. Others base their view of Sānta on the following verse of the sage Bharata:
स्वं स्वं निमित्तमासाद्य शान्ताद् भावः प्रवर्तते ।
पुननिमित्तापाये तु शान्त एव प्रलीयते ।। "Various feelings, because of their particular respective causes, arise from śānta ( a state of tranquility of mind). But, when these causes disappear, they merge back into śānta)." According to these theorists, śānta is common to all Rasas ( TESTHET FH12 ) and its permanent dominant mood is that state of mind which has not been particularized into any other mood.
Abhinavagupta observes that this view is not very different from our own view. The difference is one of “non-existence of something" before its origination and non-existence of something' when it is destroyed. And it is correct to say that desires are destroyed. For it has been said : ATHICRIATGT i.e., we can never find a man who is without desires from his birth. In other words, desires, at a later stage in iife, can be destroyed. Even Bharata refers to TH in Calvi' (Nātyaśāstra 1. 106). So, barring the last stage of nirveda, in the earlier stages, described by Patañjali (Y. S. 111. 10 & IV. 27), activities like Yama, Niyama, etc., as also several worldly activities are perceived even in really śānta persons like Janaka and others. And so śānta is apprehended because of outwardly visible
254
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
