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XIII. The Artha-Pancaka of Pillai Lokacarya
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
I HAVE been asked by Āḷkoṇḍavilli Govindācārya Swāmī to offer the following pages to the Royal Asiatic Society. The Artha-pañcaka, written in Tamil in the thirteenth century a.d. by the celebrated Piḷḷai Lōkācārya, is quite the most important summary of the modern Bhāgavata doctrine of Southern India that we possess. A Sanskrit translation of this work by Nārāyana Yati was noticed, and its contents partly described, by Dr. Bhandarkar at the Vienna Oriental Congress of 1886 (Aryan Section, Proceedings, p. 101), and the information is repeated by him in his Report on the Search for Sanskrit MSS. in the Bombay Presidency during the year 1883–4, published in 1887 (pp. 68, 69). It is upon this work, and upon another (the Yatīndra-mata-dīpikā of Śrī-nivāsa) described at the same time, that Dr. Bhandarkar founded his well-known account of the origin of the Bhāgavata religion, which has formed the basis of all researches into the subject conducted since then in Europe.
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References
page 565 note 1 Gōvindācārya Swāmī informs me that a translation of this important work is under preparation.
page 566 note 1 The so-called “Monkey” (Markaṭa-nyāya) and “Cat-” (Mārjāranyāya) schools. See JRAS., 1908, p. 338, and , A. G.'sVade-mecum, p. 45Google Scholar.
page 567 note 1 This is the Teṅ-galai use of the word. Radically it means “approaching”. Cf. prapadyatē in Bhg. G., vii, 19, and prapanna, ii, 7. Northern commentators translate this word by “bhajati”, and hence virtually equate prapatti with bhakti. Rāmānuja's commentary is to much the same effect. Cf. also Sāṇḍilya, i, 9.
page 568 note 1 The necessary correction should he made in n. 1 on p. 109 ante.
page 567 note 2 Gōvindācārya Swāmī informs me that Nārāyaṇa Yati's work is rather a paraphrase than a literal translation of the Tamil, and that in one or two passages he has either departed from or misunderstood the original.
page 570 note 1 See Table in our Lives of Āzhvārs.
page 573 note 1 See Appendix I.
page 573 note 2 i.e. varieties of material existence.
page 573 note 3 See Bhagavad-Gītā, x, 29, “Anantaś cā-'smi nāgānām,” and 30, “Vainatēyaś ca pakṣiṇām.”
page 574 note 1 Or Kosmic tapestry, of God, as it were.
page 574 note 2 Literally, “the unfettered,” i.e. “spiritual universe”. “‘Kuṭhigati-pratighātē’ iti dhātuḥ. Jñāna-pratighāti-karmādi-rahitās sūrayō vikuṇṭhāḥ; tatsaṁbandhi-dēśō Vaikuṇṭhākhyaḥ” (Śrutaprakāśikācārya on Śaraṇāgati-gadya of Rāmānuja).
page 574 note 3 See Appendix II.
page 575 note 1 See Cosmological Table in our Bhagavad-Gītā, pp. 257–8.
page 575 note 2 See E2 (infra).
page 576 note 1 See Appendix I. “Bhagavān” = “The Blessed”, or “The God of all Perfections”. The Perfections, infinite in number, are derivations from six Primary Types. The functioning pre-eminently of Two each of these Six is assigned to the Derivatives Pradyumna, etc. See pp. 80 ff. of our Vade-mecum of Vēdānta.
page 576 note 2 See pp. 83 ff. of Vade-mecum of Vēdānta.
page 577 note 1 In other words, the activities of the soul towards, and away from, objectivity (pravṛtti and nivṛtti).
page 577 note 2 See note under jñāna (E2), and pp. 86 ff. of Vade-mecum of Vēdānta. Cf. ProfessorMüller, Max (Physical Religion, p. 201)Google Scholar: “The old commandment ‘Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth,’ has been broken by all religions, if not by making likenesses, at least by conceiving the Deity in the likeness of man.”
page 577 note 3 Read Itihāsa-samuccaya, iii, 29—
“Lōkāḥ samastā dharmēṇa dhāryantē sa-carā-'carāḥ |
Dharmō 'pi dhāryatē brahman stambha-bhūtair bhavādṛśaih ‖”
page 578 note 1 See Appendix III.
page 578 note 2 Read Bhagavad-Gītā, ix, 20, 21.
page 579 note 1 It must be noted that this gross body is only the medium or vehicle by means of which pleasures and pains are conveyed to the mind (subtile body), and thence transmitted to the soul, which is the sufferer. Mind, according to Vēdānta, is the subtile material. What mind stands for in the English language is consciousness, which is the inseparable attributive adjunct of the soul. The Vēdāntik mind is said to garner and retain all germs of deeds permitted by the soul to be played on all the material planes, to be available for a new harvest in incarnations to come. Read Itihāsa-samuccaya, ii, 9—
“Manaḥ karma-mayaṁ prāhuḥ sarva-prāṇa-bhṛtāṁ budhāḥ
Tat tathā cēṣṭatē tēṣāṁ bhāvi-karma-phalaṁ yathā.”.
page 579 note 2 The ṣaḍ-bhāva-vikūras.
page 579 note 3 The Tāpa-traya. For example, the eye is Adhyātma, any sight or shape outside it affecting the eye is Adhibhūta, and the sun is Adhidēva. Pain may be engendered by any of these three causes—the senses, the object, and the presiding deity. In brief, Adhyātma is the organ of sense, Adhibhūta is the object of function, and Adhidēva is the Power or Higher Intelligence which makes these two, and the contacts between them, possible.
page 579 note 4 Virajā is literally the purifying element, by immersion in which all the -rajas (traces of taint), vi-, disappear. If incredulity forbids the acceptance of a river forming the boundary between the terrestrial and the celestial, it is admissible as a symbol. We are bound by the very necessities of language to speak of the spiritual in terms of the material. See note, p. xi, of our Lives of the Āzhvārs. For the arcir-ādi path, see our Bhagavad- Gītā, viii, 24–8, and foot-note references thereunder.
page 580 note 1 This is the śuddha-sattva nature (see our Vade-mecum of Vēdānta, p. 67), i.e. radiant, or spiritual, matter, if it may be so called, having five Upaniṣads, or śaktis, or properties, called (1) Paramēṣṭhi, (2) Pumān, (3) Viśva, (4) Nivṛtti, and (5) Sarva. Also read Vṛddha-Hārīta-Smṛti, 7th Adhyāya, and Pādma-saṁhitā (Pāñcarātra- or Bhagavat-śāstra), chapter xii, Jñāna-kāṇḍa.
page 580 note 2 See note on p. 15 and pp. 43 and 44 of our Lives of Azhvārs.
page 580 note 3 Cf. Chāndōgya Upaniṣad, I, vi, 6, Āpraṇakhāt sarva ēva suvarṇaḥ, and Taittiriya Up., III, x, 6, Suvarṇa-jyōtiḥ, etc., etc., passim.
page 581 note 1 Vaikuṇṭha is the “Land of unhampered Freedom and Joy”, fully described on pp. iv ff. of our Lives of Āzhvārs. Nātha is the Lord of that region. Vaikuṇṭha is the Tad Viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padam of the Ṛg Vēda. See note 2 on p. 574.
page 581 note 2 See Soteriological Table in our Bhagavad-Gītā, pp. 573–4.
page 582 note 1 On this eight-limbed yōga, read note 2, p. 106, of our Divine Wisdom of the Drāviḍa Saints; and Part II of our Lectures on Inspiration, etc.
page 582 note 2 See Appendix IV.
page 583 note 1 See Appendix V.
page 583 note 2 Bhakti exists wherever heart exists. All conjecture of borrowing of Bhakti by one nation from another, and by Hinduism from Christianity, is therefore, from consideration of intrinsic human nature and its instinctive promptings, waste of breath; and all further speculation on such lines seems waste of brain.
page 584 note 1 Saṁcita is what is stored like grain; prārabdha is so much of it as is taken out of the store for actual use; and āgāmi is what is being sown for a future harvest, and when harvested it is added to saṁcita.
page 584 note 2 Read Bhāgavata Purāṇa, II, iv, 18—
“Kirāta-Hūṇa-'ndhra-Puḷinda-Pulkasā Ābhīra-Kaṅkā Yavanāḥ
Kaśādayaḥ |
Yē 'nyē ca pāpā yad-upāśrayā-'śrayāś śuddhyanti tasmai
Prabhaviṃṇavē namaḥ ‖”
Prapatti thus provides an open door to knowledge of soul and God, and a freedom from all religionistic restrictions, to which the other Means or Paths are necessarily subject. Freedom is here granted to all to meditate on the highest problems of life, unhampered by social conventions. A franchise of religion is here granted to all.
page 586 note 1 Prapatti or Śaraṇāgati is Bhāgavata-Dharma, par excellence. Read the Śāṇḍilya-Vidyā (Chāndōgyo, Up., III, xiv, 1 ff., Bṛhadāraṇyaka Up., VII, vi, and Agnirahasya, Śukla- Yajus) in our Table of Upaniṣad Vidyās, pp. 129, 130 of our Bhagavad-Gītā. The Pāñcarātras are specially devoted to their exposition, particularly the Bhāradvāja-Saṁhitā and the Lakṣmī-Tantra. Also, see Śāṇḍilya-Bhakti-sūtras and Nārada-Bhakti-sūtras, and pp. 20 ff. and 80 ff. of our Vade-meczim of Vēdānta.
page 588 note 1 Students of the Gitā will be interested to read in connexion with this fivefold Means the following two verses (xiii, 25, 26):—
“Dhyānēnā 'tmani paśyanti kēcid ātmānam ātmanā |
Anyē sāṁkhyēna yōgēna karma-yōgēna cā 'parē ‖
Anyē tv ēvam ajānantaḥ śrutvā 'nyēbhya upāsatē |
Tē 'pi cā 'titaranty ēva mṛtyuṁ śruti-pārayānah ‖”
As to many gods, or Hinduism smacking of Polytheism, Max Müller justified the hidden significance of this by the term “henotheism”; but the true significance has after all been discovered by only one scholar that we know, Dr. Grierson, in his paper on “The Monotheistic Religion of Ancient India, etc.”, read at the Oxford Congress of the History of Religions. I only quote this:—
“Other ‘Gods’ are spoken of—millions of them, great and small—but in spite of this a Bhāgavata is no more a polytheist than was the Jew who used the word 'elōhīm both for the Supreme and for His ministers. Just so does the modern Hindū use the word dēva both for the Adorable and for His ministering creatures, Brahmā, Śiva, and the rest, divine but finite, whom He called into temporary being to fulfil His will. We translate 'elōhīm by ‘God’ or by ‘angel’, according to its sense. If we translate dēva uniformly by ‘God’, no matter what idea it is meant to express in the original, it does not prove that the Bhāgavatas were polytheists, but it does prove that we are bad, and—what is worse—unfair translators.”
page 588 note 2 The student of the Bhagavad-Gītā may read the whole of chapter xiii —a sequel, as it were, to chapter ii—discoursing on the knowledge discriminatory between body (kṣēlra) and soul (kṣētrin), particularly the concluding verse 35—
“Kṣētra-kṣētrajñayōr ēvam antaraṁ jñāna-cakṣuṣā |
Bhūta-prakṛti-mākṣaṁ ca yē vidur yānti tē param ‖”
page 589 note 1 See Appendix VI. Also, read note 1, p. 588.
page 590 note 1 The Fruit is Service on reaching the Goal. Disservice (apacāra) is what is adverse or hostile to that service. Divine Service is service to God and all that is His, and avoidance of what is contrary to it.
page 590 note 2 See Appendix VII.
page 591 note 1 See Appendix VIII.
page 592 note 1 The very ancient name for expressing this concept of God, common to the whole Indo-European race is Dēva (Latin Deus, Lithuanian Diēwas), meaning “bright”. This is only one attribute of the many that are connoted by the term Bhagavān. It may also be noted that Bhagavān is the epithet of the Deity to which Śaivas, as well as Vaiṣṇavas and every other denomination, including Buddhists and Jainas, subscribe. See Viṣṇu-Purāna, VI, v, 71–9, and our Bhagavad-Gītā, pp. 5, 6, and 10.
page 592 note 2 See p. 82 of our Vade-mecum, of Vēdānta.
page 592 note 3 See JRAS. for 1910, p. 159 ff.
page 593 note 1 Read further, Topics 14, 84, etc., of our Divine Wisdom of the Drāviḍa Saints. As to how the Primary Qualities group themselves and expand for kosmic work, we refer our readers to the Vyūha-Principle described on pp. 80 ff. of our Vade-mecum of Vēdānta.
page 594 note 1 Quoted in Śrivaiṣṇava-Samayācāra-Niṣkarṣa by Piḷḷai Lōkam Jīyar.
page 598 note 1 B, sanmātrâ-'tha.
page 598 note 2 B, varṇâ-' śramâ-'nuṣṭhāna,
page 598 note 3 B, vidēha-svarūpa-jñānâ.
page 599 note 1 A, mōkṣâ-'gāminaḥ.
page 599 note 2 These words are omitted in both MSS., but are required by the sense.
page 599 note 3 B substitutes for prârabdha … saṁjāta, ‘bhagavat-kaiṁkaryaprēma-' mṛta-bhōgâ-'svādēna mattāḥ.’
page 599 note 4 Both MSS. have līlā, but the usual term is nīlā. So elsewhere.
page 600 note 1 So B, A sarva.
page 600 note 2 So both MSS.,? vividhâ.
page 600 note 3 B, sarva-śaktiḥ.
page 601 note 1 B, śrīraṅga-muṣṭi-śrīvēṅkaṭa.
page 601 note 2 Sic both MSS.
page 601 note 3 Manuṣyaiḥ … prasiddhaṁ only in B.
page 601 note 4 A, sāṁkalpika.
page 601 note 5 B, pravṛttiyōgâ-cāryâdhīnayōga.
page 601 note 6 dēva … 'di, only in A.
page 601 note 7 A, śōdhanaṁ.
page 602 note 1 B, karmayōga-janitâ-tma-prati.
page 602 note 2 A, sacchāstrâ-'bhyāsa-samanâditō yathârtha.
page 603 note 1 This passage is taken from Yamunâcarya's Stōtra-ratnam.—[A. G.]
page 603 note 2 B, uccâ-'vaca for upacayâ-'pacaya.
page 603 note 3 A, vinirvṛttaḥ.
page 604 note 1 B, nāma hi prāṇa.
page 604 note 2 Bhg. G., vii, 29.
page 604 note 3 B, Parama-puruṣâ-'rtha-lakṣaṇa-bhagavat-prâptis.
page 605 note 1 So A; B, panthas tilavam.
page 605 note 2 B om. tat-svīkara … âviśya.
page 606 note 1 B, anātma-buddhiḥ for anātmany ātma°.
page 606 note 2 B, takṣakatva-bu°.
page 606 note 3 B, tadīśvaratva-buddhiḥ, sāmya-bu°.
page 606 note 4 A, ācāryā-'vatār°.
page 606 note 5 B, dēha-saṁbandhas tat-saṃbandhēṣv 'nutāpa-śā°.
page 606 note 6 We ought to have here Abhimānaḥ svarûpō-'pâyō-'pêyō-virōdhī.
page 606 note 7 B, vihitâ-'nna-pānâ-'di-kramēṇâ 'nna-pānâ-'di-saṁpādita.
page 606 note 8 B, kaiṁkarya-viniyōgaṁ.
page 606 note 9 B, bhōgya-vyavahārâ-'di.
page 607 note 1 B om. divya-vimānô-'dyāna.
page 607 note 2 B, asan-mārga-niratān.
page 607 note 3 A, yōgâ-'khyai [sic]. These, abhigamana, etc., are the five Pāñcarātra ceremonies.
page 607 note 4 ?adhikatāṁ.
page 607 note 5 B om. tvarita.
page 607 note 6 A, kṛṣṇō.
page 607 note 1 ?ēvam anuṣṭhānaṁ.
page 607 note 8 B om. saṁrakṣaka.