Matharavritti 3
English (machine translation) 3
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3.1
If so, then let there be, apart from perceived [means], the scriptural [cause] prescribed by the Veda, consisting of sacrifices and the like as means to heaven and so forth, because the threefold misery cannot exist on the summit of heaven. There, in tradition—the Veda—an invariable and final [cessation] is heard. Because students hear (śṛṇvanti) the Veda subsequently (paścāt) as spoken by the teacher (guruṇā), tradition (anuśrava) is the Veda. What originates therein is "scriptural" (ānuśravika). This scriptural [means], consisting of sacrifice and the like, is suitable as a cause for counteracting the threefold suffering. For it says thus: "He crosses over death, he crosses over grief, he crosses over evil, he crosses over the murder of a Brahmin, who sacrifices with the horse sacrifice." And the gods also say of this:
3.2
"We have drunk Soma, we have become immortal; we have reached the light, we have found the gods. / What now can the foe do to us, or what the malice of a mortal, O immortal?"
3.3
[thus the text].
3.4
Here, in scripture, an invariable and final fruit is heard. In this regard, its explanation is: Once, it is said, Indra, having noticed the gods present, said this: "O gods! Is there any happiness other than godhood?" Then those gods said: "There is no other happiness. For this very reason, our abode is named nāka (heaven). Kam is a name for happiness; the negation of that is akam, unhappiness; that it is not (na akam), hence nāka. It is pure happiness. Two negatives convey the primary meaning." Then Indra said: "How so?" Then they said: "By this cause: we have drunk (apāma), meaning we drank; Soma, meaning Soma juice in the sacrifice; through that drinking, we have become (abhūma) immortal (amṛtāḥ), meaning deathless. Furthermore, we have reached (aganma), meaning attained; the light (jyotiḥ), heaven. Moreover, we have found (avidāma), meaning we know; the gods. We know: 'So many gods are in this heaven.' Kim ('what') is used in objection. Nūnam means certainly. Asmān means of us (asmākam), by change of case ending. Kṛṇavat means he will do. Arātiḥ means an enemy, death. Or what can dhṛtiḥ (malice), meaning old age, do to us? Amṛtamartyasya means of mortals who drink the immortal nectar. The change of number is by the rule 'Variously in the Veda'. In this manner, whoever else drinks Soma will also have an invariable (necessarily) and final (in every way) warding off of the threefold suffering. Therefore we say: what is the use of renunciation or of Sāṅkhya knowledge? We will perform what is spoken of in the Veda, and heaven will be the counteraction of suffering." Having heard this statement of the proponents of the Veda, the teacher of Sāṅkhya speaks the second verse to refute it and to establish his own doctrine:
3.5
The scriptural is like the perceived, for it is linked with impurity, decay, and excess. / Superior to that is [the path] opposed to it, arising from the discernment of the manifest, the unmanifest, and the knower.
3.6
This scriptural [means] from the Veda—the Agnihotra and so forth—which is declared to be a cause for counteracting the threefold misery through being a means to heaven, is also an uncertain counteraction, just like the perceived. For instance: "A wife desiring a son should eat the middle rice-ball with the mantra: 'Fathers, place an embryo...'". Thus, in accordance with the Vedic statement, she eats many rice-balls, more than a hundred, and yet not even a single son is born. Likewise, in scripture there is: "May we see a hundred autumns, may we live a hundred autumns." But a prince dies while still in the womb, or just born, or as a child, or even as a youth. Furthermore, that scriptural cause is impure, because it involves violence to animals. It is linked with decay, because of falling back down [from heaven]. It is linked with excess, because even there one hears of the relationship of master and servant. And it is said:
3.7
"Six hundred animals, minus three animals, / are bound on the middle day of the horse sacrifice, according to the precept."
3.8
The slaughter of animals in the Agniṣṭoma, human sacrifice, the arrangement of the Gosava, the drinking of liquor in the Sautrāmaṇī, and the free chatter of the officiating priests with a widow—many other improper acts are also enjoined in the Kalpasūtra as duties to be performed. For one hears: "He should sacrifice a Brahmin to Brahman, a Kṣatriya to the nobility, a Vaiśya to the Maruts, a thief to penance, a slayer of heroes to hell," and so on. Moreover:
3.9
"Just as muddy water cannot be cleansed with mud, or [liquor-stained] with liquor, / so one cannot wipe away this killing of living beings through sacrifices."
3.10
"For hands smeared with blood are indeed not cleansed by blood alone."
3.11
Because of the Vedic passage: "Just as in this world human beings eat animals and thus consume them, so in yonder world animals eat human beings." Furthermore:
3.12
"If by cutting down trees, slaughtering animals, and making a mire of blood / one goes to heaven, by what does one go to hell?"
3.13
Thus, the Vedic means of counteracting the threefold suffering is accompanied in every way by impurity. Now, as to what was stated earlier: "We have drunk Soma, we have become immortal" [Ṛgveda 8.48.3]—to that, this is the reply: Even for drinkers of Soma such as Nṛga, Nahuṣa, Indra, and Yayāti, piercing, binding, and afflictions were manifold; and for others, there is a fall [from heaven] upon the exhaustion of the enjoyment of their karma. Sacrifices such as the one-day rites, which have a limited duration in days and are limited causes, are observed to produce an effect, such as heaven, that is likewise limited; for the effect conforms to the cause. From a limited lump of clay, only a limited pot can arise. In this way, because the fruit of scriptural means is limited, there is again decay. Moreover, it is accompanied by inequality. Just as suffering arises for a poor man on seeing a rich man, for an ugly man on seeing a handsome one, and for a fool on seeing a wise man, so too suffering arises for a heavenly resident possessing five Apsarases upon seeing one who possesses a hundred Apsarases, and for one possessing a single Apsaras upon seeing him. In this way, this [scriptural means] is just like the perceived means. Thus, on account of mutual inequality, suffering is unremitting even in heaven. Therefore: "The opposite of that is better" [Sāṅkhyakārikā 2]. The means that is the opposite of, dissimilar to, those two—the perceived and the scriptural means—being certain, absolute, pure, imperishable, yielding endless fruit, and unsurpassable because of isolation, is better, [that is,] superior. But how does this come about? He says: "from the knowledge of the manifest, the unmanifest, and the knower" [Sāṅkhyakārikā 2]. From the knowledge, [that is,] the direct experience, of these three: the manifest, the unmanifest, and the knower. For this [means] is certain because it necessarily grants its fruit; absolute because of the knowledge of nature; pure because of possessing restraints, observances, and so forth; and of imperishable fruit because, upon the dissolution of the body, there is no re-entry [into transmigration]. It yields unsurpassable fruit because of isolation and because nothing is higher—this is the completion of the sentence. Among them, the manifest is twenty-three-fold through the division of intellect, egoity, sense faculties, subtle elements, and gross elements. The unmanifest is primordial matter, the cause of the origination of the manifest; its establishment [rests on the principle] that an effect cannot lack a cause. The knower is the spirit, the cause of activity merely through the existence of its presence, like a magnet for iron; hence its establishment is that this is the cause of activity for insentient primordial matter. These are the twenty-five principles, designated as the manifest, the unmanifest, and the knower, from the knowledge of which one is certainly and entirely freed from the threefold suffering.