|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
24. Different again, of course, is the case of "things" outside the Texttrees, rocks, men and women, gods; though these exist and are not textually constituted, as renunciation is made out to be by Advaita, they too are irrelevant until their textual location is identified. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
25. Often translated as "states" or "stages" of life. I retain the Sanskrit asrama, to avoid the dispute as to whether the asramas are ''really" four consecutive stages in a single course or rather four (potentially unconnected) states. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
26. This Mimamsa reasoning is drawn from the ritual situation where one or another action clearly occurs in a rite, though no justificatory text can be found; since action takes precedence over its texts, the fact of the fact demands the positing of a (currently unavailable) text. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27. The decision that there is a fourth asrama entails a further consideration as to whether it has distinguishing marks; in turn, this entails a discussion of whether asceticism (tapas) is that adequate mark. The conclusion is that since asceticism is characteristic of the third asrama it cannot be the distinctive mark of the fourth. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
28. Skt. 884, 890; emphasis mine. We shall return to this aspect of the discourse about renunciation in Chapter 4: by verbally legitimated renunciation one traverses the gap between the complexity of textual knowledge and the simplicity of an Advaita apprehension of Brahman. It is possible to be permanently free of wordsafter one has been schooled in the Text. In his commenting, Amalananda introduces a textually structured discussion as to whether renunciation entails the discarding the topknot of hair and the brahmanical thread and the carrying of either the triple staff or the single staff. This discussion proceeds on the basis of a new array of scriptural texts, and Appaya Diksita amplifies it at great length. Ostensibly extratextual issues constitute the topic of the adhikarana, but only in a textual (re)formulation. No social data is directly introduced, not even the behavior of those worthy of respect. Questionsasked inside and outside Vedantaabout the ordering of the orthodox spiritual life are rephrased in a thoroughly textual fashion. Each right reading advances that knowledge which culminates in a perfect, precise discrimination among texts and consequent perfect discrimination of correct living. See Olivelle (1986) for a full discussion of the Vedanta debate over renunciation, based on materials other than the UMS Text. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
29. From a different starting point and for a different end, Pollock aptly summarizes the position enunciated here: "Even the act of ascetic renunciation, which is in its very essence the withdrawal from the rule-boundedness of social existence, depends on the mastery and correct execution of shastric rules." (1985, p. 509) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
30. I take UMS I.4 as a supplement to the main project of the adhyaya. |
|
|
|
|
|