Purva-Mimamsa in its Sources c8.s2.1

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.