THE PÁSUPATA SYSTEM OF NAKULÍSA.
Certain Máhesvaras disapprove of this doctrine of the Vaishnavas known
by its technicalities of the servitude of souls and the like, inasmuch
as bringing with it the pains of dependence upon another, it cannot be
a means of cessation of pain and other desired ends. They recognise as
stringent such arguments as, Those depending on another and longing
for independence do not become emancipated, because they still depend
upon another, being destitute of independence like ourselves and
others; and, Liberated spirits possess the attributes of the Supreme
Deity, because at the same time, that they are spirits they are free
from the germ of every pain as the Supreme Deity is. Recognising these
arguments, these Máhesvaras adopt the Pásupata system, which is
conversant about the exposition of five categories, as the means to
the highest end of man. In this system the first aphorism is: Now then
we shall expound the Pásupata union and rites of Pasupati. The meaning
is as follows:--The word _now_ refers to something antecedent, and
this something antecedent is the disciple's interrogation of the
spiritual teacher. The nature of a spiritual teacher is explicated in
the Ganakáriká:--
"But there are eight pentads to be known, and a group, one
with three factors;
"He that knows this ninefold aggregate is a self-purifier, a
spiritual guide.
"The acquisitions, the impurities, the expedients, the
localities, the perseverance, the purifications,
"The initiations, and the powers, are the eight pentads; and
there are three functions."
The employment in the above line of the neuter numeral three
(_tríni_), instead of the feminine three (_tisrah_), is a Vedic
construction.
(_a._) Acquisition is the fruit of an expedient while realising, and
is divided into five members, viz., knowledge, penance, permanence of
the body, constancy, and purity. Thus Haradattáchárya says: Knowledge,
penance, permanence, constancy, and purity as the fifth.
(_b._) Impurity is an evil condition pertaining to the soul. This is
of five kinds, false conception and the rest. Thus Haradatta also
says:--
"False conception, demerit, attachment, interestedness, and
falling,
"These five, the root of bondage, are in this system
especially to be shunned."
(_c._) An expedient is a means of purifying the aspirant to
liberation.
These expedients are of five kinds, use of habitation, and the rest.
Thus he also says:--
"Use of habitation, pious muttering, meditation, constant
recollection of Rudra,
"And apprehension, are determined to be the five expedients
of acquirements."
(_d._) Locality is that by which, after studying the categories, the
aspirant attains increase of knowledge and austerity, viz., spiritual
teachers and the rest. Thus he says:--
"The spiritual teachers, a cavern, a special place, the
burning-ground, and Rudra only."
(_e._) Perseverance is the endurance in one or other of these pentads
until the attainment of the desired end, and is distributed into the
differenced and the rest. Thus it is said:--
"The differenced, the undifferenced, muttering, acceptance,
and devotion as the fifth."
(_f._) Purification is the putting away, once for all, of false
conception and the other four impurities. It is distributed into five
species according to the five things to be put away. Thus it is said--
"The loss of ignorance, of demerit, of attachment, of
interestedness,
"And of falling, is declared to be the fivefold purification
of the state of bondage."
(_g._) The five initiations are thus enumerated:--
"The material, the proper time, the rite, the image, and the
spiritual guide as the fifth."
(_h._) The five powers are as follow:--
"Devotion to the spiritual guide, clearness of intellect,
conquest of pleasure and pain,
"Merit and carefulness, are declared the five heads of
power."
The three functions are the modes of earning daily food consistent
with propriety, for the diminution of the five impurities, viz.,
mendicancy, living upon alms, and living upon what chance supplies.
All the rest is to be found in the standard words of this sect.
In the first aphorism above recited, the word _now_ serves to
introduce the exposition of the termination of pain (or emancipation),
that being the object of the interrogation about the putting away of
pain personal, physical, and hyperphysical. By the word _pasu_ we are
to understand the effect (or created world), the word designating that
which is dependent on something ulterior. By the word _pati_ we are to
understand the cause (or _principium_), the word designating the Lord,
who is the cause of the universe, the _pati_, or ruler. The meaning of
the words sacrifices and rites every one knows.
In this system the cessation of pain is of two kinds, impersonal and
personal. Of these, the impersonal consists in the absolute
extirpation of all pains; the personal in supremacy consisting of the
visual and active powers. Of these two powers the visual, while only
one power, is, according to its diversity of objects, indirectly
describable as of five kinds, vision, audition, cogitation,
discrimination, and omniscience. Of these five, vision is cognition of
every kind of visual, tactual, and other sensible objects, though
imperceptible, intercepted, or remote. Audition is cognition of
principles, conversant about all articulate sounds. Cogitation is
cognition of principles, conversant about all kinds of thoughts.
Discrimination is cognition of principles conversant about the whole
system of institutes, according to the text and according to its
significance. Omniscience is cognition of principles ever arising and
pervaded by truth, relative to all matters declared or not declared,
summary or in detail, classified and specialised. Such is this
intellectual power.
The active power, though one only, is indirectly describable as of
three kinds, the possession of the swiftness of thought, the power of
assuming forms at will, and the faculty of expatiation. Of these, the
possession of the swiftness of thought is ability to act with
unsurpassable celerity. The power of assuming forms at will is the
faculty of employing at pleasure, and irrespective of the efficacy of
works, the organs similar and dissimilar of an infinity of organisms.
The faculty of expatiation is the possession of transcendent supremacy
even when such organs are not employed. Such is this active power.
All that is effected or educed, depending on something ulterior, it is
threefold, sentiency, the insentient, and the sentient. Of these,
sentiency is the attribute of the sentients. It is of two degrees
according to its nature as cognitive or incognitive. Cognitive
sentiency is dichotomised as proceeding discriminately and as
proceeding indiscriminately. The discriminate procedure, manifestable
by the instruments of knowledge, is called the cogitative. For by the
cogitant organ every sentient being is cognisant of objects in
general, discriminated or not discriminated, when irradiated by the
light which is identical with the external things. The incognitive
sentiency, again, is either characterised or not characterised by the
objects of the sentient soul.
The insentient, which while unconscious is dependent on the conscious,
is of two kinds, as styled the effect and as styled the cause. The
insentient, styled the effect, is of ten kinds, viz., the earth and
the other four elements, and their qualities, colour, and the rest.
The insentient, called the causal insentient, is of thirteen kinds,
viz., the five organs of cognition, the five organs of action, and the
three internal organs, intellect, the egoising principle, and the
cogitant principle, which have for their respective functions
ascertainment, the illusive identification of self with not-self, and
determination.
The sentient spirit, that to which transmigratory conditions pertain,
is also of two kinds, the appetent and non-appetent. The appetent is
the spirit associated with an organism and organs; the non-appetent is
the spirit apart from organism and organs. The details of all this are
to be found in the Pañchártha-bháshyadípiká and other works. The cause
is that which retracts into itself and evolves the whole creation.
This though one is said to be divided according to a difference of
attributes and actions (into Mahesvara, Vishnu, &c.) The Lord is the
possessor of infinite, visual, and active power. He is absolutely
first as connected eternally with this lordship or supremacy, as
possessing a supremacy not adventitious or contingent. This is
expounded by the author of the Ádarsa, and other institutional
authorities.
Union is a conjunction of the soul with God through the intellect, and
is of two degrees, that characterised by action, and that
characterised by cessation of action. Of these, union characterised by
action consists of pious muttering, meditation, and so forth; union
characterised by cessation of action is called consciousness, &c.
Rite or ritual is activity efficacious of merit as its end. It is of
two orders, the principal and the subsidiary. Of these, the principal
is the direct means of merit, religious exercise. Religious exercise
is of two kinds, acts of piety and postures. The acts of piety are
bathing with sand, lying upon sand, oblations, mutterings, and
devotional perambulation. Thus the revered Nakulísa says:--
"He should bathe thrice a day, he should lie upon the dust.
Oblation is an observance divided into six members."
Thus the author of the aphorisms says:--
"He should worship with the six kinds of oblations, viz.,
laughter, song, dance, muttering _hum_, adoration, and pious
ejaculation."
Laughter is a loud laugh, Aha, Aha, by dilatation of the throat and
lips. Song is a celebration of the qualities, glories, &c., of
Mahesvara, according to the conventions of the Gandharva-sástra, or
art of music. The dance also is to be employed according to the _ars
saltatoria_, accompanied with gesticulations with hands and feet, and
with motions of the limbs, and with outward indications of internal
sentiment. The ejaculation _hum_ is a sacred utterance, like the
bellowing of a bull, accomplished by a contact of the tongue with the
palate, an imitation of the sound _hudung_, ascribed to a bull, like
the exclamation Vashat. Where the uninitiated are, all this should be
gone through in secret. Other details are too familiar to require
exposition.
The postures are snoring, trembling, limping, wooing, acting absurdly,
talking nonsensically. Snoring is showing all the signs of being
asleep while really awake. Trembling is a convulsive movement of the
joints as if under an attack of rheumatism. Limping is walking as if
the legs were disabled. Wooing is simulating the gestures of an
_innamorato_ on seeing a young and pretty woman. Acting absurdly is
doing acts which every one dislikes, as if bereft of all sense of what
should and what should not be done. Talking nonsensically is the
utterance of words which contradict each other, or which have no
meaning, and the like.
The subsidiary religious exercise is purificatory subsequent ablution
for putting an end to the sense of unfitness from begging, living on
broken food, &c. Thus it is said by the author of the aphorisms:
Bearing the marks of purity by after-bathing.
(It has been stated above that omniscience, a form of the cognitive
power, is cognition of principles ever arising and pervaded by truth,
relative to all matters declared or not declared, summary, or in
detail). The summary is the enouncement of the subjects of attributes
generally. This is accomplished in the first aphorism: (Now then we
shall expound the Pásupata union and rites of Pasupati). Detail is the
fivefold enouncement of the five categories according to the
instruments of true knowledge. This is to be found in the
Rásíkara-bháshya. Distribution is the distinct enouncement of these
categories, as far as possible according to definitions. It is an
enumeration of these according to their prevailing characters,
different from that of other recognised systems. For example, the
cessation of pain (or emancipation) is in other systems (as in the
Sankhya) the mere termination of miseries, but in this system it is
the attainment of supremacy or of the divine perfections. In other
systems the create is that which has become, and that which shall
become, but in this system it is eternal, the spirits, and so forth,
the sentient and insentient. In other systems the _principium_ is
determined in its evolution or creative activity by the efficacy of
works, whereas in this system the _principium_ is the Lord not thus
determined. In other institutes union results in isolation, &c., while
in these institutes it results in cessation of pains by attainment of
the divine perfections. In other systems paradise and similar spheres
involve a return to metempsychosis, but in this system they result in
nearness to the Supreme Being, either followed or not followed by
such return to transmigratory experiences.
Great, indeed, an opponent may say, is this aggregate of illusions,
since if God's causality be irrespective of the efficacy of works,
then merits will be fruitless, and all created things will be
simultaneously evolved (there being no reason why this should be
created at one time, and that at another), and thus there will emerge
two difficulties. Think not so, replies the Pásupata, for your
supposition is baseless. If the Lord, irrespective of the efficacy of
works, be the cause of all, and thus the efficacy of works be without
results, what follows? If you rejoin that an absence of motives will
follow, in whom, we ask, will this absence of motives follow? If the
efficacy of works be without result, will causality belong to the doer
of the works as to the Lord? It cannot belong to the doer of the
works, for it is allowed that the efficacy of works is fruitful only
when furthered by the will of the creator, and the efficacy so
furthered may sometimes be fruitless, as in the case of the works of
Yayáti, and others. From this it will by no means follow that no one
will engage in works, for they will engage in them as the husbandman
engages in husbandry, though the crop be uncertain. Again, sentient
creatures engage in works because they depend on the will of the
creator. Nor does the causality pertain to the Lord alone, for as all
his desires are already satisfied, he cannot be actuated by motives to
be realised by works. As for your statement, continues the Pásupata,
that all things will be simultaneously evolved, this is unreasonable,
inasmuch as we hold that causal efficiency resides in the unobstructed
active power which conforms itself to the will of the Lord, whose
power is inconceivable. It has accordingly been said by those versed
in sacred tradition:--
"Since he, acting according to his will, is not actuated by
the efficacy of works,
"For this reason is he in this system the cause of all
causes."
Some one may urge: In another system emancipation is attained through
a knowledge of God, where does the difference lie? Say not so, replies
the Pásupata, for you will be caught in a trilemma. Is the mere
knowledge of God the cause of emancipation, or the presentation, or
the accurate characterisation, of God? Not the mere knowledge, for
then it would follow that the study of any system would be
superfluous, inasmuch as without any institutional system one might,
like the uninstructed, attain emancipation by the bare cognition that
Mahádeva is the lord of the gods. Nor is presentation or intuition of
the deity the cause of emancipation, for no intuition of the deity is
competent to sentient creatures burdened with an accumulation of
various impurities, and able to see only with the eyes of the flesh.
On the third alternative, viz., that the cause of emancipation is an
accurate characterisation of the deity, you will be obliged to consent
to our doctrine, inasmuch as such accurate characterisation cannot be
realised apart from the system of the Pásupatas. Therefore it is that
our great teacher has said:--
"If by mere knowledge, it is not according to any system,
but intuition is unattainable;
"There is no accurate characterisation of principles
otherwise than by the five categories."
Therefore those excellent persons who aspire to the highest end of man
must adopt the system of the Pásupatas, which undertakes the
exposition of the five categories.
A. E. G.