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Purva-Mimamsa in its Sources c8.s2: B. Liberation according to the Prābhākara

Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā in its Sources c8.s2

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B. Liberation according to the Prābhākara

c8.s2.1

The view of *Prabhākara* himself we have no direct means of ascertaining, as, like *Shabara*, he does not deal with people who have transcended Karma or Action. His followers’ views on the subject we learn from the *Prakaraṇapañchikā* (p. 156). According to these views, Liberation consists in the disappearance of all Merit and De-merit (resulting from Actions). It is on account of Merit and De-merit accruing to the Soul that it is born in the physical body; consequently when all Merit and De-merit have disappeared, there remains nothing that could lead the Soul to be born again in a body; and when the Soul ceases to have connection with bodies, and hence also with the Sense-organs, etc., all its metempsychic troubles are ended and it is free, liberated. As to how all this comes about, the following explanation has been provided:—(1) First of all, the man becomes disgusted with the troubles that he has had to undergo during his life on the earth; (2) finding the pleasures of the world also to be invariably accompanied by some sort of pain, he comes to lose all interest in, and longing for, pleasures also; (3) he thereupon turns his attention towards Liberation; (4) he ceases to perform such acts as are prohibited and which lead to trouble, as also those that are prescribed only as leading to some sort of happiness here or hereafter; (5) he attenuates all previously acquired Merit and De-merit by undergoing the experiences resulting from them; (6) he destroys the sole receptacle or abode of his experiences by the knowledge of the Soul, as aided by such qualities as Contentment, Self-control and so forth, all of which are laid down in the scriptures as tending to put a stop to the further return of the Soul into this world; it is only when all this has come about that the Soul becomes free, liberated.

c8.s2.2

All this may appear to be inconsistent with *Prabhākara’s* own declaration (in *Bṛhatī*, p. 235) to the effect that ‘the Soul is purely the actor and experiencer’; which apparently means that there is no freedom for the Soul from *Action* and *Experience*, so that there can be no Liberation. But there is no real inconsistency; like *Shabara*, *Prabhākara* has confined himself to the *Man of Action*—i.e., the Soul engaged in activity, and has taken no notice of one who has transcended Action.

c8.s2.3

*Shankara Mishra* in his *Vādivinoda* (p. 40) has the following note:—According to *Prabhākara*, Liberation is the *Prāgabhāva*—absence before appearance—of Pain along with the total absence of *Pain*; that is a state in which there is no Pain and no likelihood of (appearance) of Pain. This is the view of *Vallabhāchārya* also. According to *Bhaṭṭa*, Liberation consists in the appearance of everlasting Happiness. According to *Tridaṇḍin* it consists in the fusion of the *Jīvātman* into *Paramātman*. According to *Shankarāchārya*, it is the direct realisation, *Sākṣātkāra*, of the non-duality of Brahman. He goes on to remark that according to the *Līlāvatī*, as according to the *Mīmāmsaka*, there is no possibility of all personalities ever attaining *Mokṣa*.

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