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Chapter - 4
Samayusūra difficult to see that the good and moral actions result in the bondage of the auspicious types of karma, while evil or sinful ones result in the bondage of inauspicious types. Nevertheless, both are on the same footing with reference to the summum bonum.
Now the bondage of auspicious karma is exclusively due to virtuous activity which is also the means for the attainment of purity of the soul. Here, then, we have a paradox-bondage of punya is necessarily concomitant with the partial purification of the soul. It is obvious that one cannot abandon virtuous activities-penance and austerities-to escape the bondage of punya. A simple analogy resolves the paradox and shows the way out of the dilemma.
The main function of religious and moral activities-tapaspenance and austerities-is to purify the soul by purging out karmic matter form it (nirjarā). Bondage of punya (punyabandha) as well as its fruition (punyaphala) are incidental products which accompany the spiritual purity much in the same way as chaff is an incidental by-product accompanying the grain which is the essential product of the cultivation of seed. And just as the main purpose of cultivation is the production of grain and not the chaff, so also the aim of a moral action is to purify the soul. Not only the chaff is incidental but unavoidable. The distinction is in the Desire. The desire is to obtain grain in one case and spiritual purity in the other. Just as there is no desire to produce chaff, so also there should be no desire to produce bondage punyabandha or its fruition punyaphala.
The author, therefore, enjoins the disciple to refrain from desiring the bondage and fruition of punya-auspicious karma. “Do not be misled by the sweet-sounding popular adjective ‘auspicious', because in reality it is as vicious as pāpa-inauspicious. However, since the bondage itself is unavoidable, what is to be avoided is desire and attachment. One should neither crave for punyabandha during religious action nor have longing for the enjoyment of punyaphala at the time of its fruition.
Finally, he uses a simple analogy to drive home his point. A. person might become friendly and even cultivate intimate relations with another, knowing him to be a good man. But as soon as he comes to know that his friend is really a bad character-in-disguise,
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