Nyayamanjari Part 03

Author(s): Jayant Bhatt, Chakradhar, Gaurinath Shastri
Publisher: Sampurnand Sanskrit Vishva Vidyalay

Page 6

PREFACE
As announced earlier, we have much satisfaction in bringing out the third part of Nyāya-mañjari of Jayanta Bhațța with the commentary ‘Granthibhanga' by Cakradhara. This part contains four Āhnikas (ix-xii). Among the topics taken up in these four sections the discussion on ‘Apavarga' is particularly striking.
II
The conception of apavarga (or, mokşa) according to Gotama, the author of the Nyāya-sūtras, is recorded in the aphorism, 'tadatyantavimokso' pavargah', where 'tat' does not stand for pain (duḥkha) only but for all the eight-fold special qualities (viseșaguna) of the self (ātman), viz., knowledge, pleasure, pain, desire, aversion, effort, merit (dharma) and demerit (adharma) and the latent impressions (saṁskāras) as well. Merit and demerit stand as the two main pillars on which rests the structure of our empirical life and so long as they are not destroyed, we can hardly expect to reach the state of apavarga. And, this is because so long as they exist, continuity of birth cannot be stopped and emancipation eludes realization. The emergence of the body is occasioned by merit and demerit springing from desire or aversion that is brought about by error (adhyāsa). Error recedes in the background only when the knowledge of the reality (which is atman) dawns. Ātman is different from the body, the senses, the vital breaths and the like. It is claimed that for the attainment of the said knowledge the Nyāya Šāstra is a most suitable medium.