Indian Philosophy v2.c25.s7.2

v2.c25.s7.2

Jaimini and Śabara did not face the problem of ultimate release. They pointed the way to a life in heaven, but not to freedom from saṃsāra. But the later writers could not avoid the problem, since it occupied the attention of the thinkers of the other schools. According to Prabhākara, liberation consists in the total disappearance of dharma and adharma, whose operation is the cause of rebirth. It is defined as "the absolute cessation of the body, caused by the disappearance of all dharma and adharma."³ The individual, finding that in saṃsāra pleasures are mixed up with pain, turns his attention to liberation. He tries to avoid the forbidden acts as well as the prescribed ones which lead to some sort of happiness here or hereafter. He undergoes the necessary expiations for exhausting the previously accumulated karma, and gradually, by a true knowledge of the soul aided by contentment and self-control, gets rid of his bodily existence.¹ Mere knowledge cannot give us freedom from bondage, which can be attained only by the exhaustion of action. Knowledge prevents further accumulation of merit and demerit.² Evidently the followers of Prabhākara do not regard karma by itself as sufficient for effecting release. Karma, in expectation of reward, leads to further birth. Our likes and dislikes determine our future existences. We must break through the circle if we want to attain release. Liberation is the cessation of pleasure as well as of pain. It is not a state of bliss, since the attributeless soul cannot have even bliss. Mokṣa is simply the natural form of the soul.³