History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.349
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.349
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The author Acyutarāya states that the work really means ‘Prārabdha-vāda-dhvāntasamhṛti’ (destruction of the darkness caused by the doctrine of prārabdha) and that all that he wants is to combat the false idea that all human acts from the moment of conception to death are governed by past deeds alone to the exclusion of everything else. He postulates that all human activity is due to *prārabdha*, to *samskāras* (sub-conscious or latent impressions or tendencies) and *prayatna* (human effort). He explains: the moment after the body dies, all the accumulated good and bad deeds set in motion by God become ready to yield their retribution (results) and that a good or evil deed (or both) that is strongest begins a suitable body. The birth is that of a brāhmaṇa or the rest when there is mixed good and evil as the strongest karma, as a lower animal when sin is strongest, as a godly birth when a good deed is strongest. The duration of life may be 100 years, less or more, and *bhoga* means experiencing pleasure or pain that is regarded as favourable or unfavourable.²⁵⁹² Then he launches on the discussion of pleasure (*sukha*) as threefold, viz illusory (*prātibhāsika*), actual (*vyāvahārika*) or actual due to illusory pleasure. Pleasure is again *ramya* (beautiful) and *priya* (dear or liked). These two are not synonymous, since gold would appear beautiful to an ascetic but it is not dear to him. Then he divides what is *priya* into three kinds (or degrees).
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He divides each of the three kinds of pleasure into three varieties, which are passed over here. The preceding are classifications of pleasure that is ‘Laukikakārya’ (ordinary or common); but there are also other sukhas, viz. *vaidika* [fourfold such as pratīkopāsanā, *āhārya* (assumed) and *vāsanātmaka* (as in sleep)]. This last he subdivides into three kinds (sāttvika, rājasa and tāmasa) that are passed over. Pain (duhkha) is divisible in the same way as sukha and the author illustrates the different kinds of pain, that are left out here. Then the author dilates upon the cause or causes of pleasure and pain (sukha and duhkha) that constitute man's experience on earth, which causes are prārabdha (past *karma* that has begun to operate and determines the body the soul secures), *samskāra* and *prayatna*.²⁵⁹³ He states that the bliss that a man feels in meditation (*samādhi*) is due to *prārabdha*, the pleasure he feels in deep sleep is due to *samskāras*²⁵⁹⁴ and the pleasure on the fall of rain after the performance of the Kārīrī (sacrifice) is due to human effort From the Upanisad passages it follows (says Acyutarāya) that in deep sleep there is no desire, no karma and no fear and so the pleasure (expressed on waking in the words '*sukham-ahamasvāpsam*' (I had a happy sleep) is not due to prārabdha but to samskāras. He relies on the Br. Up.²⁵⁹⁵ (IV. 4. 2) for holding this view (i e.
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he takes '*pūrvaprajñā*' in that passage as equal to *vāsanā* ('latent impressions or reminiscences of past experiences). The activities of a person in past lives may be madhya²⁵⁹⁶ (middling or moderate), manda (inferior), tīvra (formidable). A good deed which is three parts sāttvika and one part rājasa is called madhya; a deed which is half sāttvika and half rājasa is tīvra. Then Acyutarāya refers to a conflict of views. Following the words ‘punyo vai puṇyena karmaṇā bhavati pāpaḥ pāpena’ (Br. Up. III. 3. 13 quoted in note 2510 above), some writers held that it is only Karma that is the cause of a new birth and that vidyā (knowledge of all kinds) and pūrvaprajñā have nothing to do with it, while others relying on Br. Up. IV. 4. 2 (to which reference is made in the Saṅkṣepaśārīraka III. 18) held that Vidyā, Karma and Pūrvaprajñā have all to do with the assumption of a new body by the soul. Achyutarāya agrees with this latter view. He divides and subdivides Karma, vidyā and pūrvaprajñā, so that ultimately the threefold apparatus for giving a new body comes to 96 varieties and remarks that these divisions are not of much use.²⁵⁹⁷ To the objection that all this refutation of prārabdhavāda is idle and serves no purpose he replies: men are of three sorts, mukta (liberated), mumukṣu (desirous of liberation) and viṣayin (immersed in enjoying the objects of sense). As regards the first the Chān. Up. VI. 14.
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2 says ‘for him there is delay so long as he is not delivered (from the body), then he will be perfect’.²⁵⁹⁸ The same is relied upon in V. S. IV. 1. 19. The idea being that until prārabdhakarma that brought about the body in which Realisation was attained is done away with by the death of the body, the self is jīvanmukta, but his other karma that has not begun to yield fruit is done away with by Realisation. To the same effect is Bhagavadgītā.