Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/61

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and that the final beatific release of the soul must be such as cannot be accomplished under an injunction, in as much as any possible fresh accomplishment of it will certainly imply that it is non-eternal. Final release or moksha is the same as the unembodied condition of the soul, and this unembodied condition is its essential nature and is hence eternal and uncreatable. To accomplish anything anew must mean either its origination, or attainment, or modifi- cation, or refinement ; and it is not possible to predicate any of these things in regard to moksha. The knowledge of the syntactical meaning of sentences does not therefore produce moksha, but only removes the obstructions which are in its way. Final release follows immediately after the knowledge of the Brahman is acquired, and does not stand in need of anything that has to be produced by obey- ing a commandment given in the sdstras. The sdslras declare all phenomenal distinctions to be unreal and to be manufactured by avidya, and the commandment enjoining meditation is useful only in helping us to understand well the syntactical meaning of scriptural sentences. Immediately after the knowledge of truth is acquired, the bondage of unreality must necessarily give way; and to be released from this bondage, one need not wait even till the falling off of the body. It has thus to be made out that moksha is not a thing that can be accomplished by obeying the command- ment relating to meditation, and that the Brahman is not hence implied in that commandment ; indeed He is inde- pendently taught and known (pp. 295-301.).

This contention of the Adwaitin is next met by the Dhydna-niyoga-vadin. He says that the phenomenal bondage of the soul is a concrete reality and is actually perceived to be such. Mere abstract knowledge of any kind is wholly incompetent to remove this bondage ; and