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srI:
SrI  upakAra  sangraham ? 53
--- 
adikAram ? 1
poorva upakAra paramparai
(The Foremost Series of Favours) 
---   
SECTION ? 5 (11) [continued] 
(27 Favours of the Lord leading to the means for
MOKSHAM)  
-----   
        The yOga system, though believed in the existence
Ishvara, it did not help the jIvas to attain Him but
promoted the concept of Kaivalya ? enjoying one?s own
Atma and asserted that that is the ultimate for a
living being to attain. Towards that goal, it laid
down the steps to be followed by an aspirant. 

In the yOgadarShana, the yOgasootras of sage
Patanjali, the second chapter begins with the advice
to the aspirant that he must surrender to God for
further spiritual progress towards Kaivlaya. The
aspirant should cultivate the virtues, attend to
duties essential to his well-being and personal
security and always keep God-realization as the
primary goal. Once he comes to the enlightenment path
with a firm resolve and proceeds in the right way
after surrendering to God, progressive spiritual
growth is assured. Further progress to attain Kaivalya
is assured once we get the help of God.  Here we see
God is being used as a step towards the AtmAnubhava,
enjoyment of one?s own Atma. 

        SwAmi Desikan points out that the Lord does a favour
to the sAttvik persons from being carried away by the
advocacy of self-enjoyment which is not the ultimate
goal for such persons to attain.

        Next, the Lord attends to those sAttvik persons who
have a firm faith in the Vedic concepts and
instructions. These people were advised by a set of
Vedic scholars to perform sacrificial rites for
getting mundane benefits like wealth or progeny, in
particular, a son or a heavenly life. These scholars
are known as poorva-meemAmsakas. They are concerned
with Samhita and the BrahmaNa part of the Vedas,
excluding the AraNyaka portions which include
Upanishads and deal with knowledge of the Ultimate
reality, Brahman.

The poorava-meemAnsakas gave the highest importance to
the Vedic injunctions regarding various rituals and to
the practicing them strictly according to the rules
for mundane and heavenly benefits. But the results
achieved by these rituals are not lasting and do not
help in attaining salvation from the cycle of
rebirths.

However, they provided useful information on the
proper study of the Vedas. 

Their system admits two kinds of knowledge: pratyakSha
(direct perception) and parOkSha (mediate knowledge).
The latter is of five kinds: anumAna (inference),
upamAna (comparison), shabda (verbal testimony)
arthApatti (postulation) and anupalabdhi
(non-perception). 

Of these, pratyakShan anumAna and shabda are well
known. The others are:

upamAna: This is another source of knowledge, by which
a unknown object can be learnt by recollecting a
similarly looking object seen before.
arthApatti: It is the necessary supposition of an
unperceived fact which alone can explain an anomaly
satisfactorily. For example, if a person is noticed
becoming fatter even though he does not eat during the
day, it can be safely presumed that he is secretly
eating at night. This is special source of knowledge
as it cannot be obtained by any other means.
anupalabdhi: This is another source of knowledge since
it gives the immediate cognition of the non-existence
of an object. For example, if a jar which had been
kept at a particular spot, is not perceived now, its
non-existence is cognized. 
        
The poorva-meemAmsa sootras contained numerous
theories of reason by which one is helped to take
quick decision when placed in peculiar situation. They
are called nyAyas, like apachEta nyAya,
sAmANya-vishESha nyAya, etc. These are useful to
interpret certain Vedic statements in a proper manner.
This is essential due to the fact that Vedic
statements are all correct, but, when some of them
appear to be against the perceptive fact (pratyakSha)
(not convincing), these should be understood using
these nyAyas. The basic assumption is that any Vedic
statement will not go wrong. In case, such a situation
arises as it is not at all possible to match a Vedic
statement with the pratyakSha, it should be ignored.
The pratyakSha source of knowledge is the most
important and valid source of knowledge, provided it
is bereft of any error.      

The poorva-meemAmsa Sootras were compiled by Jaimini,
a disciple of Veda VyAsa who is the author of the
Brahmasootra. This voluminous poorva-meemAmsa
comprises more than 2500 aphorisms (sootras) divided
into 12 chapters and 60 sub-sections. PrabhAkara and
KumArila Bhatta wrote independent commentaries on the
Jaimini Sootras. 

The Poorva-meemAmsaka believed that only the
performances of the rituals give the necessary
benefits ? mundane and heavenly and not the gods like
Indra etc. Once the the ritual is performed for a
particular desire, a shakti, named as apoorvam, is
created and that will confer the desired benefit on
the person at the appropriate time, i.e. immediately
after his natural death.  That is the ultimate goal of
the human beings.    

The poorva-meemAmsak scholars were opposed to the
study of uttara-meemAmsa which deals with the
knowledge of Brahman and the means to attain mOkSha,
salvation from the cycle of rebirths and to attain the
eternal Bliss. However, their contribution was an
elaborate epistemology which was useful to study the
Vedanta, particularly Brahmasootra. 

Their stand was that as Brahman is a siddha vastu,
already existing object, it cannot be known through a
word, a combination of letters, and so a study of
Upanishads which explain Brahman is merely a literary
knowledge which is not at all useful from the
practical point of view. This stand of theirs was
rejected by VedAntists like BhOdayaNa, Shankara and
SrI Ramanuja. 

SrIbhashya of SrI RamAnuja dismisses the theory of the
poorva meemAsa and establishes that both the poorva
and uttara meemAmsa form a single Scripture and one
has to begin the Vedic study with the poorva-meemAmsa,
which will make him realize that the mundane and
heavenly benefits are not only non-eternal, but very
tiny, compared to the fruit obtained through the
realization of Brahman, which is not only eternal, but
infinitely largest Bliss. There is also no fear of any
more births once a person attains Brahman, who is
SrIman nArAyaNa in the ultimate state of SrivaikuNtam.

           This is another favour conferred by the
Lord, on sAttvika persons of high purity, by saving
them from being guided wrongly by the ritualistic
scholars and remaining in the never-ending cycle of
rebirths. 

(To contine)
dAsan
Anbil S. SrInivAsan
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