Dear all,
I hope the early summer is treating you well. I write seeking help with a reference in Madhusūdana Sarasvatī's
Vedāntakalpalatikā. In a doxographical portion of the text, the author describes one group as
follows:
Apare tu
aikabhavikanyāyena ātmajñānamantareṇāpi niṣiddhakāmyayor
ananuṣṭhānāt nityanaimittikānuṣṭhānāt
ca na āgāmikarmotpādaḥ.
Vidyamānasya copabhogena kṣayāt
sakalakarmocchedalakṣaṇam apavargam
āhuḥ.
(But others [say], via aikabhavika-nyāya, as a result
of the performance of the compulsory and occasional [karmas] and the non-performance
of the prohibited and voluntary [karmas], even without knowledge of ātman, there
is no production of future karma. They speak of “release” (apavarga)
as characterized by the extirpation of karma entirely, due to the exhausting of present [karmas] by means of their enjoyment [in this current birth?].)
I am trying to identify the group Madhusūdana
has in mind as well as the principle/rule of "aikabhavika" that he references. The language used in the passage brings the Mīmāṃsakas
quickly to mind; however, the organization of the treatise would strongly suggest that some Naiyāyika and/or Vaiśeṣika group
is at play. I seem to hazily recall that Praśastapāda in his Bhāṣya,
perhaps, records a view along these lines? Yet I would be surprised to see a [Nyāya-]Vaiśeṣika
articulation of mokṣa that gives so small a role to knowledge (cf. "ātmajñānamantareṇāpi").
To further complicate the identification, I wonder if aikabhavika might in some way be connected with the well-known discussions of ekabhavika rooted in Yoga-Bhāṣya
2.13? I am inclined to read ekabhavika in that context as referring to a type of
karma that bears fruit in a single subsequent lifetime, whereas I read Madhusūdana's
aikabhavika here to refer to karma that bears fruit and becomes exhausted within the very same lifetime, i.e., prior to death. I could certainly be mistaken, however, as I have seen "aikbhavika" in the Brahma-Sūtra commentarial literature
(3,1.2.8) -- by Madhusūdana's fellow
Advaitins -- in the former sense of karma that bears fruit in the immediately subsequent birth.
I am open to all of your learned suggestions! If it helps at all, Madhusūdana
later casts this viewpoint aside with disdain, calling it so unfounded that to bother to refute it would only bring shame upon the refuter.
With many thanks for your insights,
Shankar Nair
Assistant Professor
Department of Religious Studies and
Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Cultures
University of Virginia