Argument
IPVV — V3-F ARGUMENT MAP (the close of the tṛtīyo vimarśa: grace, initiation, and the jīvanmukta)
MACHINE_DRAFT · 4 premises
Question. The tṛtīyo vimarśa established the pramāṇa, its fruit, and the primacy of the knower. Now, in closing, Abhinavagupta asks the practical question: given all this, **how does one actually attain the Lord** (parameśvaratā)? The answer runs through the fourfold "work" (caturvidha kṛtya), the Lord's grace (prasāda), initiation (dīkṣā), the vision-yoga (dhyāna), knowledge (jñāna), and devotion (bhāvanā) — and ends in the *jīvanmukta*, the one liberated while living, who needs no further rebirth.
Issue. **The question:** The tṛtīyo vimarśa established the pramāṇa, its fruit, and the primacy of the
knower. Now, in closing, Abhinavagupta asks the practical question: given all this, **how does one
actually attain the Lord** (parameśvaratā)? The answer runs through the fourfold "work" (caturvidha
kṛtya), the Lord's grace (prasāda), initiation (dīkṣā), the vision-yoga (dhyāna), knowledge (jñāna),
and devotion (bhāvanā) — and ends in the *jīvanmukta*, the one liberated while living, who needs no
further rebirth.
Premises
The fourfold work and grace
A supreme (pārameśvara) work must be accomplished [by the aspirant]; even if impossible in itself, it
is assumed as possible. The "effort" (prayatna) is the life of the fourfold work (caturvidha kṛtya).
And only by the Lord's grace (tatprasādād eva)** — when the Lord's self is pleased, with the
abandoning of the turbidity of body-and-the-rest conceit — is one able to cross the great ocean of
delusion. In the Lord-taught śāstra, established by bhāvanā [devotion], the saṃskāra, the
dīkṣādikriyā [initiatory rite], the dhyānayoga [vision-yoga], the yoga, the jñāna [knowledge] — by
their all-around capacity — [the aspirant] abandons, leaves, the heya-form [the to-be-abandoned]
world — the knower-made world of body, breath, the eight-fold city, the void — the world whose mark is
the support/object of enjoyment — the world of the lokas and the beings — and, by the gate of the
Lord's grace and the guru's grace, in the dīkṣā and the rest, being graced by the param-Lord, he
brings the lordship (aiśvarya) to manifestation in himself. This is the connection.
**Initiation is prior
Here the capacity of all the dīkṣā-and-the-rest is stated: even in this birth, the attainment of the
param-Lord — although vision and knowledge are primary, the knowledge is preceded by the dīkṣā. (Cites
mā. vi. 4.6: "There is no eligibility for the yoga of Śaṅkara without the dīkṣā; and it is declared
twofold, by the distinction of kriyā and jñāna.")
Devotion and the vibhūtis
But if one, without practicing the dhyānayoga, is assured by the jñāna-dīkṣā [knowledge-initiation]
alone — then what? Answer: the **bhāvanā** (devotion/contemplation). Some (the yogins) attain a *share
of the vibhūti* — a portion of all-knowing-ness and all-doing-ness, the capacity of the
higher-knowledge-instrument, marked by the eight-fold vibhūti (aṇimā and the rest), pertaining to this
and that loka. But even with the manifest existence of the higher [vibhūti], there is no loss of the
present [goal] — and even by reason this is established ("nahi").
The prāṇa/ātma and the self-shining
The ātma-being and the param-ātman are both present together without conflict (paraspara-sannidhāna).
No conflict from the prāṇa's ātma-being present with the param-ātman; but a conflict of the
self-experiencing self-shining-ness? — No: if the param-ātman is present, then he is of the nature of
the self-shining one. But then how is the prāṇa's ātma-being? — By the param-ātman's own free
manifestation (svātantryeṇa prathā), whose power it is; the prāṇa, etc., shine as ātma by that
prabhāva. The prāṇa and the rest, too, have the touched-by-vedakatā (knower-ness), even in
vedyatā (known-ness) — the "one"-grasping. And even non-beings (avastu) are thus; even the non-being
is [shown]. The object (prameya) is remembered by the power of the break of experience; but the
knower-form, whose essence
Unresolved. 1. The exact working of the "caturvidha kṛtya" (the fourfold work) — its items are given via the
Vṛtti (dīkṣā, dhyāna, jñāna, yoga) but the canonical fourfold enumeration is Abhinava's;
rendered per the text.
2. The mā. vi. 4.6 citation (eligibility requires dīkṣā) — cited, not re-derived.
3. The "mohakalāsaṃskāra" (delusion-fragment-impression) — the exact ontology of the residual
impression; rendered as the "delusion-impression."
Referenced by essays (1)
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