Yogadrstisamuccaya and Yogavinshika

Author(s): K K Dixit
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 19

INTRODUCTION
Tarā, Balā, Diprā, Sthira, Kantā, Prabha and Parā; (as for the concepts 'welcomer of the worldly existence', sayoga Kevalin and ayoga Kevalin, they make their appearance in the Yogadrstisamuccaya as in Haribhadra's earlier texts on yoga). And it is not always easy to see the points of similarity between these two sets of concepts. However, a few things of fundamental importance are tolerably clear.
Thus first four yoga-viewpoints of the Yogadrstisamuccaya are said to characterize the avedyasamvedyapada while the last four to characterize the dedyasamvedyapada; at the same time, the fifth of these viewpoints (and not any earlier) is said to be characterized by untying of the knot of ignoravce. Now in the traditional account of the gumasthānas the ‘untying of the knot' is said to result in an immediate attainment of the fourth gunasthāna called Samyagdrsti. We can therefore say with certainty that the Yogadrstisamuccaya concepts of vedyasarnvedya pada and avedyasamve. dya pada are respectively equivalent to the traditional concepts samyaktra and mithyātva; as a corollary, we can say that the first four viewpoints described in the Yogadrstisamuccaya are parallel to the traditional concept of Apunarbandhaka. But it is difficult to grasp the utility of this fourfold division of what was traditionally considered to be one single state; as a matter of fact, it makes better sense if the stage of 'welcoming the worldly existence is contrasted with a single stage (called A punarban. dhaka) than if it is contrasted with four yogr-viewpoints (cailed Mitra, Tārā, Bala and Diprä). Similarly, it is difficult to see how the four yoga viewpoints-called Sthirā, Kanta, Prabhū and Parā-can be made to corres. pond to the traditional concepts of Samyagdrsti and Cāritrin (along with its subdivisions).
It seems that in the Yogadşstisamuccaya Haribhadra thought more of accommodating his scheme of classifying the stages of ethical perfection to those prevalent in certain non-Jaina traditions than of accommodating it to the one prevalent in the Janla tradition. One of these non-Jain traditions was that of Patañjali who had talked of eight yogāngas (yoga--factors), viz, yama, niyama, āsana, prāņāyāma, pratyahāra, dhāraṇa, dhyana and samadhi; another was that of some Bhagavaddatta who had talked of freedom from eight undesirable traits of mind, viz. kheda, udvega, kseba. ullhana, bhränti, anyamud, ruk and asanga; a third was that of some Bhadanta Bhaskara who had talked of eight desirable traits of charaster. viz. adveşa, jijñasā, śuśrüşā, stavaņa, bodha, mimaisā, prati palti and pravsiti. Haribhadra thought it possible to institute an exact parallelism between these three sets of eight factors each on the one hand and what he (though not the Jaina tradition as we know it) considered to be the eight successive stages of ethical perfection on the other. This mode of