na sāmānyādapyupalabdhermṛtyuvannahi lokāpattiḥ ..3.3.53..

SUTRA III. 3. 53.

 

न सामान्यादप्युपलब्धेर्मृत्युवन्नहि लोकापत्तिः॥३.३.५३॥

na sāmānyādapyupalabdhermṛtyuvannahi lokāpattiḥ ..3.3.53..

 

… Na, there is not (the power of liberating). … Samanyat, due to similarity. … Api, even. … Upalabdheh, of the seeing, or perception. … Mrityuvat, just as in the case of every kind of death, … Na, not. fit Hi, because. … Loka-apattih, the reaching to the other worlds.

 

53. As death, common to all, (does not mean Mukti) but only attainment of any particular region of enjoyment so Mukti is not attained by an ordinary or common vision of the Lord obtained by every being (when the Lord incarnates on earth as an Avatara). — 414.

 

COMMENTARY

 

The word «also» has the force of exclusion. That vision which is obtained in a general way, namely, which is common to all, at the time when the Lord descends on the earth and assumes a physical form, is not the cause of Mukti. As death, which is common to all, is not the cause of Mukti, though to the Jivanmukta, death means Mukti. But is then there no good result oven in this ordinary seeing of the Lord, when He comes as an Avatara? Do those persons who see the Avatara get no fruit at all? Yes, they do. It is not Mukti, but attainment of higher spheres of heavenly joy. Thus as the Vidyadhara Sudarshana saw the Lord in a general way and got heaven, or just as the king Nriga also got heaven by such seeing. If you say that getting heaven is Mukti, then the Sutra replies «Na hi», not so. Getting of higher spheres is not Mukti. The Smriti is also to the same effect. In the Narayana Tantra, we also find the following:

From the ordinary perception of some one form, different celestial regions are reached but final release comes from the perception to which he is especially entitled; and there is no doubt as to this, that the soul attains Mukti (release) on obtaining the perception of Brahman, for which he is eligible.

The sense is this, the vision is of two sorts — the vision of the Lord as enveloped in Maya, and vision free from such Maya. The first sort of vision arises when there is great merit of Punyam. Through such vision a man reaches heavenly regions: but the second sort of vision, which is obtained only through theosophic knowledge or Brahma-Vidya, the subtle body called the Lingadeha is destroyed, the man becomes the beloved of the Lord, has His vision and sees Him as consisting of intelligence and bliss, free from all Maya. It is this vision, so produced, which causes the final Mukti. Thus everything is reconciled.

It is said, that even the enemies of the Lord, killed by the Lord, get Mukti at the very moment of their death, when they are just killed by Him. How is this? Such persons get final Mukti, because their Lingadeha even is destroyed, by the mysterious touch of the sacral weapons of the Lord, as they strike at Him. When the Lingadeha is once destroyed thus, at the very moment of death, his attitude of mind instantly changes from hostility to Him to love for Him, and he at his last moment sees the Lord, as the object of greatest endearment and love, and because he sees Him so, he gets Mukti. (The Mukti is not obtained, because he is killed by the Lord, but because his Lingadeha even is destroyed, and he sees the Lord in His true glory, with unclouded vision, full of love). If this were not so, it would contradict many texts (declaring that love of God and not hatred of him leads to Mukti).