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188
SAMAYASARA
discipline, pra tikramana, etc., become necessary and desirable. Since they promote the achievement of the good they must be said to constitute the pot of nectar. Whereas the lack of the eight-fold discipline must constitute the opposites that is the pot of poison since there is a free vent to evil. This ordinary description is reversed in the two gathās by Sri Kunda Kunda. He is thinking of the transcendental Self which is quite beyond the region of good and evil. Hence the question of discipline or non-discipline is meaningless. And hence in the case of the supremely pure state of the Self, to talk of pratikramaṇa, etc., is to drag it down to the empirical level and to postulate the possibility of occurrence of impure emotions which ought to be disciplined and controlled. Hence to talk of pratikramaṇa, etc. in this state will be a positive evil. Hence the revered author considers the various kinds of moral discipline to be things to be avoided and calls them poison pot. Then what is the significance of the opposite, apratikramana, etc. which are described to constitute the pot of nectar? Here the term aparatikramana implies not the mere opposite of pratikramana. The mere opposite of pratikramana would imply removing the disciplinary act and giving free access to the impure emotions towards the focus of attention. That would be positive degradation of the Self. Hence this interpretation of the term would be inapplicable to the pure Self in the transcendental region. Therefore the negative prefix in the words apratikramaṇa, etc. must be taken to signify the absence of necessity to practise the discipline. When the self is absorbed in its own pure nature by attaining the yogic samadhi, there is a full stop to the series of impure psychic states characteristic of the empirical Self. Hence there is no necessity to practise the various kinds of discipline. The very absence of those disciplinary practises produces spiritual peace that passes understanding. It is in that stage there is the pot of nectar. Such a spiritual peace necessarily implies spiritual bliss which is the characteristic of the Supreme Self.
Thus ends the chapter on mokşa.
Here mokşa quits the stage.
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