A History of Indian Philosophy v2.c19.s6.30

v2.c19.s6.30

Among later writers Vidyāraṇya wrote on this subject a treatise which he called *Jīvan-mukti-viveka*². It is divided into five chapters. In the first he deals with the authorities who support *jīvan-mukti*; in the second, with the nature of the destruction of instinctive root inclinations (*vāsanā*); in the third, with the destruction of *manas* (*mano-nāśa*); in the fourth, with the final object for which *jīvan-mukti* is sought; and in the fifth, with the nature and characteristics of those saints who have attained *jīvan-mukti* by wisdom and right knowledge (*vidvat-saṃnyāsa*), and have virtually renounced the world, though living. The work is more a textual compilation from various sources than an acute philosophical work examining the subject on its own merits. The writer seems to have derived his main inspiration from the *Yoga-vāsiṣṭha*, though he refers to relevant passages in several other works, such as *Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad*, *Maitreyī-brāhmaṇa*, *Kahola-brāhmaṇa*, *Śārīra-brāhmaṇa*, *Jābāla-brāhmaṇa*, *Kaṭha-vallī*, *Gītā*, *Bhāgavata*, *Bṛhaspati-smṛti*, *Sūta-saṃhitā*, *Gauḍa-pāda-kārikā*, *Śaṅkara-bhāṣya*, *Brahma-sūtra*, *Pañca-pādikā*, *Viṣṇu-purāṇa*, *Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa*, *Yoga-sūtra*, *Naiṣkarmya-siddhi*, *Kauṣītaki*, *Pañcadaśī*, *Antaryāmi-brāhmaṇa*, *Vyāsa-bhāṣya*, *Brahma-upaniṣad*, the works of Yama, Parāśara, Bodhāyana, Medhātithi, Viśvarūpa Ācārya, etc.