Text 2: Source of Knowledge

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Text 2:

तच्चेश्वरचोदनाभिव्यक्ताद्धर्मादेव ॥ २ ॥

tacceśvaracodanābhivyaktāddharmādeva || 2 ||

Text (2)—This knowledge proceeds from dharma manifested by the injunctions of the Lord.

Commentary: The Nyāyakandalī of Śrīdhara.

(English rendering of Śrīdhara’s commentary called Nyāyakandalī or Nyāyakaṇḍalī from the 10th century)

Objection:—“If the knowledge of truth be the means of final beatitude, then dharma could not be the means of it; and this would involve a contradiction of the sūtra, wherein it is declared that dharma is that which leads to final beatitude.”

It is in reply to this objection that we have the present text. The sense of this is that the said beatitude results from dharma alone; the knowledge of Substance and the rest being regarded as the means to it, only in so much as such knowledge brings about dharma. That is to say, when all objects, internal and external, have been duly known, the man comes to notice the evils connected with them and hence acquires an aversion to them; his desire for such things having thus ceased, the man who has obtained a knowledge of the self ceases to perform action for the acquiring of those objects, and betakes himself, without any desire for results, to the practice of those means that are laid down in the scriptures as calculated to bring about the due renunciation of those objects; and continuing the due practice of self-knowledge, he accumulates an excellent dharma conducive to the said renunciation; and the self-knowledge being thereby fully accomplished, it becomes possible for him to be severed, absolutely and permanently, from the shackles of the body. Even in ordinary life we find worldly people renouncing or avoiding such undesirable things as a serpent, a thorn and the like,—such avoidance resulting from an effort on his part, which is due to a determination arising from the recognition of the evils following from those things. In the same manner, the absolute renunciation of the body &c. can proceed only from a similar property of the self (i.e. its efforts) arising from a determination resulting from the person’s recognition of the evils attendant upon those things.’ This we shall explain under the section on ‘Mokṣa.’

Dharma too, by itself, does not accomplish final beatitude, until it is aided by the wish of God; it is for this reason that we Lave the text—Only from dharma manifested by the injunctions of the Lord. ‘Codanā’ (Injunction) is that whereby things are led or urged to their respective functionings. ‘Īśvaracodanā’ is a particular desire or a wish of God. ‘Abhivyavti’ (manifestation) is the turning towards the fulfilment of the effect. ‘Īśvaracodanābhivyaktāt’ means ‘manifested by the injunction of the Lord.’ The sense of the sentence thus comes to be that ‘final beatitude results from dharma which is turned towards fruition by a particular wish of the Lord.’

The particle ‘ca’ indicates that it is this dharma along with the knowledge of the similarity &c. that brings about final beatitude.

Note:—

The Kiraṇāvalī takes ‘Īśvara-codanā’ in the sense of ‘Veda,’ which according to the Naiyāyika and the Vaiśeṣika, is a work God, and not an ‘independent,’ eternal entity, as held by the Mīmāṃsaka.