All Dharmas (entities) are beginningless and unattached

Gauḍapāda in kārikā 91 says that,

‘All Dharmas (entities) are, by their very nature, beginningless and unattached like the ākāśa. There is not the slightest variety in them, in anyway, at anytime’.

Śaṅkara says that those desirous of liberation should know that all dharmasi. e. ātman are by nature like the ākāśa, very subtle, unconditioned, all pervading and beginningless i.e. eternal. The use of the plural with regard to beings/ jīvas may give rise the impression that jīvas/ ātmans are really many seen from the empirical standpoint. Thus, Gauḍapāda in the second line of the kārikā removes the possibility of such impressions by denying the least trace of any variety in any place and at any time.

According to Gauḍapāda there is no knowableness of dharmās (ātman) in the primary sense of that word. It is stated only from the point of view of saṃvṛtii. e. the illusory empirical experience.

He says in kārikā 92 that,

‘All Jīvas are, by their very nature, enlightened from the very beginning and they are ever immutable in their nature. He who, with this knowledge, rests without seeking further knowledge, is alone capable of realising the Highest Truth’.

As Śaṅkara remarks the knowableness of dharmas (jīvas) is stated (above) only from the point of view if illusory empirical experience and not from the point of view of Ultimate Reality. For they are by their very nature illumined (ādibuddhāḥ) from the very beginning. All the jīvas/ātmans are of the nature of eternal enlightenment like the sun, being of the nature of eternal light. All dharmas mean all ātmans. There is no need to ascertain their nature, their eternal nature is well ascertained. Doubts like “they are like this or not like that” do not apply to them. The seeker of liberation, who, in the aforesaid manner, has no doubt of his own nature stands in no need of further knowledge (kṣānti) and definition either for himself or for others. This is just like the sun is even independent of any other light, for its own sake or for others. Who thus finds peace always in himself, not finding any necessity of further knowledge, becomes capable of attaining immortality i.e. liberation (amṛtatvāya).

Bhattacharya remarks, the word buddha in ādibuddha means here bodha or knowledge, i.e., advaya jñāna which is called Tathāgata as we have already seen in kārikās 82-84. All phenomena are only in their imposed or imagined forms, they being buddha or bodha or jñāna.

Here he compares the phrase describing Brahman in later Vedāntic works:

nityaśuddhabuddhamuktasatyasvabhāva (Vedāntasāra, 28).^[1]

Bhattacharya translates the word kṣānti as ‘patience’. He says that in Buddhism the term dharmanidhyānakṣānti in the Bodhicaryāvatāra, which could mean ‘ability to penetrate contemplatively the nature of dharmas’.^[2]

Gauḍapāda continues in kārikā 93 the metaphysical description of (all) dharmas which he discussed in kārikās 91-92. The phrase sarve dharmāḥ appears in each of these three kārikās. In kārikā 93 he says that,

‘All Dharmas or Jīvas are from the very beginning all peace, unborn, and by their very nature completely unattached. They are of the same nature and are non-separate from one another. The Absolute Reality is therefore unborn, uniform and pure (viśāradam [viśārada]).

Śaṅkara says, it was stated in the previous kārikā about the condition which alone makes the seeker of liberation capable of attaining immortality. There may be a doubt that immortality is adventitious and achieving it as a new thing. This kārikā dispels that doubt. The ātman is, by its very nature, ever free and illumined. There is no need for any effort to make ātman peaceful as all ātmans/ jīvas are eternally peaceful, are unborn and by their very nature are free from action. Because of this, all ātmans are alike and not different (sama-abhinnāḥ) from each other and of the pure essence of ātman. Therefore, there is no such thing as peace or liberation that has to be brought about. The meaning is that the ātman is eternally of the same nature, there is no need to make any effort to bring about any change in it.

In this kārikā the term ‘sunirvṛtāh’ was used for the first time by Gauḍapāda. Bhattacharya eloquently translated the phrase ‘prakṛtyaiva sunirvṛtāḥ’ as ‘by their very nature perfectly merged in nirvāṇa’.

He quotes as a possible model for the first line of kārikā 93, a line from the Mahāyānasūtralaṅkāra X.5:

“anutpannāniruddhādiśāntaprakṛtinirvṛtāḥ”.^[3]

This line means ‘unoriginated, unobstructed, at peace from the outset, essentially merged in nirvāṇa’.

Bhattacharya also discovers the exact line used by Gauḍapāda in this kārikā as it appears in the Āryaratnameghasūtra quoted by Candrakirti in his Madhyamakavṛtti: “ādiśāntāhy anutpannāḥ prakṛtyaiva ca nirvṛtāḥ”^[4] The only difference between the Āryaratnameghasūtra version and Gaudapādakārikā version is the substitution of sunirvṛtāḥ in the latter for canivṛtāḥ in the former.

The term ‘sunirvṛta’ of this kārikā is also applied by the term ‘sanirvāṇam’ in Gauḍapādakārikā (3:47). Yet another new term introduced by Gauḍapāda in this kārikā to characterise the Ultimate Truth is ‘viśārada’ meaning fearless, pure, holy etc. The substantive form of this term appears in kārikā 94 as ‘vaiśāradyam’. Śaṅkara, the commentator glosses viśārada as visuddha or pure and ‘sunnirvṛta’ as completely serene (visuddhi), detached or free from action, composed, liberated (upahita svabhāva). He says that viśārada is one who is pure as he is proficient in Ultimate Knowledge.

Gauḍapāda in kārikā 94 further continues the same view in order to inspire the seekers of liberation. He says,

‘Those who always rely on (attach themselves to) separateness can never realise the innate purity of the Self. Therefore those who are drowned in the idea of separateness and who assert the separateness of (entities) are called narrow-minded’.

According Śaṅkara those who realise the essence of Reality as described above, are called persons having the best judgment. Those who talk of multiplicity of things (pṛthagvādāh), or in other words the dualists, confine themselves to the world (saṃsāra). They are known as narrow minded people (kṛpanaḥ). They obstinately assert duality and are always preoccupied with phenomenal experience. They never realise the natural purity of ātman. They ever persist in the path of duality which is only imagined by ignorance (avidyā).

Bhattacharya finds the meaning of vaiśāradya as ‘fearlessness’ documented by a phrase from the Abhidharmakośavyākhyā of Yosomitra: “nirbhayatāhi vaiśāradyam”, and also mention a phrase from the Mahāvyutpatti: “sarvadharmābhisambodhivaiśārdyam”, meaning the fearlessness induced by the highest knowledge of all dharmas.^[5]

This kārikā characterises ‘those immersed in the perception of difference’ (bhedanimnāḥ) as ‘those of limited understanding’ (kṛpanāḥ smṛtāḥ). This very phrase ‘kṛpanāḥ smṛtāḥ’ was also used by Gauḍapāda is kārikā 3:I. According to Gauḍapāda a person with limited understanding (kṛpaṇa) is one who believes in duality. And a person who is completely detached from the empirical experience (viśārada) is one who has the right knowledge that the Ultimate Reality is unborn (aja) and uniform or equal (sama). So the term ‘vaiśāradyam [vaiśāradya]’ is the opposite of the term ‘kārpanyaṃ [kārpanya]’.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Bhattacharya, Āgama śāstra, 202.

[2]:

Ibid.

[3]:

Ibid., 204.

[4]:

Ibid., 205.

[5]:

Ibid., 207.