Indian Philosophy v2.c26.s8.31

v2.c26.s8.31

The ethical endeavour consists in a progressive approximation to the highest good. The distinctions of good and evil are relevant to the world of experience, where the jīvas possess the sense of individuality. Since avidyā is something which affects man's personality as a whole, in order to get rid of it not only right knowledge but good conduct and devotion to God are necessary. Religion helps us to the attainment of the supreme good. Full liberty of worship is allowed to the finite soul, who can image the infinite in any way he chooses, since all forms rest on the one absolute.⁵ The form of religion, resting on the distinction between the human soul and God, is a relative one, adopted on account of its instrumental value.⁶ Gauḍapāda accepts the Yogic method as a means. "When the mind ceases from imagining, by a knowledge of the truth of the Ātman, it becomes naught, and remains at rest for want of things to cognise."⁷ The state is not to be identified with sleep, for it is knowledge which has for its object Brahman.⁸ It is beyond conceptual description, beyond all duality, in a region where jñāna is centred in the Ātman.⁹ The method of Yoga is a hard one, involving as it does the control of mind (manonigraha), so hard that Gauḍapāda compares it to the effort of the individual who is engaged in emptying the ocean drop by drop with the tip of a straw of kuśa grass.¹ The mind, however, should not stop in the enterprise until the ultimate bliss is attained.