History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c94.192.2

v7.c94.192.2

The five *vṛttis* are *pramāṇa* (means of valid knowledge), *viparyaya* (wrong conception), *vikalpa* (fancy), *nidrā* (sleep),²³¹⁶ *smṛti* (memory). Pramāṇas are three, *pratyakṣa* (perception), *anumāna* (inference), *āgama* (verbal testimony). The means for the suppression of the vṛttis are *abhyāsa* (practice) and *vairāgya* (passionlessness) (simultaneously carried on), the first being the effort to secure a calm flow of the mind free from vṛttis, continued for a long time uninterruptedly and earnestly and the latter (*vairāgya*) being the consciousness of mastery over (i. e. freedom from thirst for) seen objects (such as woman, food and drink, high position) and objects promised by Revelation (such as heaven, disembodied existence &c.),²³¹⁷ 'Vairāgya is of two kinds *apara* (described in Y. S. I. 15 just above) and *para* (highest) described in Y. S. I 16 and bhāṣya thereon. In the highest *vairāgya* the yogin (who has reached discrimination between the self and the *guṇas*, *sattva* &c.) is free from thirst not only for objects of sense, but also free from the guṇas, attains a stage of undisturbed consciousness only and leads the yogin to reflect 'I have attained what was to be attained, the kleśas (hindrances avidyā &c ) that have to be destroyed have been destroyed, the close-knit succession of births and deaths has been out off'.