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Chapter - 9
Samayasāra
anger, cruelty, fear, hate etc. are neither pure psychic states nor pure physical ones. They are psychological distortions produced in the soul by the fruition of deluding karma. And from the empirical aspect, they are accepted as psychical states, as in the case of standard gold. But the transcendentally pure soul is totally free from anger etc., establishing that they are not pure attributes or nature (svabhāva) of the pure soul, but distortions (vibhāva) produced by the interaction of the soul and the karma. The process of purification and self-realization is complete only when the impure emotions and passions are first identified as non-self and then separated from the Self by the method described in the verses 3.6 to 3.13.
In this chapter the following technical terms need to be expounded:
1. Bhedvijñāna-(special) ability to discriminate. As stated above, the soul, under the influence of delusion, identifies itself with the physical shell which envelops it. That is, it is unable to distinguish and separate itself from the body which is patently contrary to the ultimate truth. This error continues as long as the delusion lasts. The soul is, in course of time, impelled by an innate psychic force to revise and reverse its false belief and it begins to sense a distinction between the characteristics of the Self and the Non-self. It enters a course of spiritual discipline, and ultimately, enlightenment dawns upon it and it acquires the ability to clearly distinguish itself from the body. This dawn of enlightenment or the ability to differentiate is called bhedavijñāna.
2. Prajñā-Discriminative Wisdom. Prajñā broadly means profound and' mature spiritual ability to directly experience the fundamental state of the Self. It is a faculty by which consciousness is aware of itself in its pure form, completely isolated from other objects of perception, thought or feeling. Thus it is an efficient and reliable instrument or tool for separating the Self and the Non-self. It implies a rare combination of discretion, maturity, extensive learning, searching profundity and spiritual discernment.
In English language, the nearest equivalent term appears to be wisdom or discriminative or discretary wisdom or sagacity. Yet there is some difference, viz., while prajñā is used to emphasize
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