Yogadrstisamuccaya and Yogavinshika

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

Page 93

SECTION VI
THE NATURE OF MOKSA
[Haribhadra's account of yoga as a means of developiug an ideal human personality is perhaps over by the time he reaches the verse 186 (rather the verse 185). But as we have earlier noticed, in the eyes of Haribhadra himself the development of an ideal human personality is but a means of attaining mokşa - conceived in the form of a cessation of the transmigratory cycle. He therefore adds to his account of
the eight yoga-viewpoints a discussion on the nature of mokşa. The · discussion is divided into four parts, the first (verscs 187–92) contai
ning a reasoned statement of the Jaina position on tbe question, the second (verses 193-97) containing a reasoned refutation of the momentarist (i. e. Buddhist) position on the question, the third (verses 198-203) containing a reasoned refutation of the eternalist (i. e. Sānkhya) position on the question, and the fourth verses (204-6) recapitulating the Jaipa position earlier introduced. It is not easy to assess the value of such a discu. ssion-particularly wben it occurs in a text like the present one with its catholic attitude on the questions pertaining to matters spiritual. The discussion reveals that the Jain, Buddhist and Sankhya advocates of mokşã cannot be made to adopt, an upan/mous position as to the nature of mokşa, and that in its turn is because one's notion of mokşa logically follows from one's metaphysical convictions. Of course, these advocates of mokşa will declare with one voice that the attainment of moksa signifies a cessation of the transmigratory cycle, but this will be too slender a' basis for that unanimity among the various theological orders which Haribhadra was aiming at. That is why we have earlier opined that a belief in mokşa (and omniscience ) should not bave been made by Haribhadra the basis of his appeal for broad-mindedness. In any case the present discussion is somewhat out of tune with Haribhadra's crusade against sectarianism and metaphysics-mongering. For the rest it ought to be easy to see what Haribhadra is driving at in this part of his argument la (a) The Author's Own View :
व्याधिमुक्तः पुमान् लोके यादृशस्तादृशो ह्ययम् । नाभावो न च नो मुक्तो व्याधिनाऽव्याधितो न च ॥१८७॥ vyadhimuktaḥ pumün loke yādīšas tādņšo hy ayam / nābhavo na ca no mukto vyādhinā'vyadhito na ca 1/187||