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An alternative interpretation of Patanjali's three Satras on Üsvará
3.
Thus to say that niratiśaya-jñāna (=ananta.jñana) is the seed of sarvajña. jñāna is the same thing as to say that sarvajña.jñāna is vivekaja. Another name for sarvajña jnana is tāraka-jñana, Patañjali explicitly states that tāraka iñāna is vivekajao. As he has placed it in his treatment of siddhis, it becomes quite clear that he considers it to be simply a siddhi.
Why is ananta-jñāna i, e. vivekajñāna regarded as the seed of sarvaj ñá jnāna ? There is a good reason for that. Patanjali wants to suggest that sarvajña inana does never automatically follow on the attainment of ananta. jñāna. As soon as one attains ananta jñāna one acquires the capacity (Elabdhi) to know all, but he does not actually know all. He knows all provided he performs samyama (dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samadhi) on kşana and ksanakramazo. This means that the capacity to know all functions under a specific condition. If jñāna were to become automatically sarvajña on its becoming ananta, then ananta jñāna would not have been regarded as the seed of sarvajña jñana; in that case it would have been regarded as identical
sarvajña-jñāna. But this being not the case, ananta jñana is regarded as the seed of sarvajña-jñāna.
On the attainment of Dharmamegha samadhi all the klešas and karmas get completely destroyed, and as soon as all the klešas and karmos are destroyed the jñāna becomes ananta because all the obscuring veils and impurities have already been destroyed. The person who has attained this ananta-jñāna acquires the capacity to know all but this capacity functions only if he performs a special type of samyarna.
"All this discussion clearly suggests that a vivekı who has attained Dharmamegha samadhi is Išvara, and it is he who is described in the sutra in land, Thus Isvara is not necessarily sarvajña; he becomes sarvaj na only when he performs that samyama. In other words, he has the capacity to know all, but this capacity functions provided certain conditions are fulfilled. This capacity to know all is a siddhi wbich is the result of his attainment of anantajñana. Thus he is invariably characterized by ananta-jñana he is not invariably characterized by sarvajña-jñāna. [3] The next sūtra is
pūrvesām api guruh kalenänavacchedat/I, 26 He [=7svara) is the spiritual teacher of even the elderly
persons because he is not limited by time. I. 26. Here the role of Tsvara as upadeşta is suggested by the term "guru'. (b) The phrase "pūrveşam api guruħ' reminds us of that well known t verse from the Dakşiņāmūrtistotra attributed to Āc, Sankara, viz.
citram vațataror müle vrddhaḥ śişyo gurur yuva' etc. This idea is very common in Brahmanic. Buddhist and Jaina religions.
Ibid 3.54
9. tārakam sarvavişayam sarvathāvişayam akramam ceti vivekajam jñānam 10 kşana-tatkramayoh samyamãd vivekajam jñānam / Ibid 3.52
