79. Ghaṭīyantra-nyāya
For irrigating the fields in the villages there will be a contraption with a wheel fitted to the wells called ghatīyantra. Some of the cups attached bring up water, empty them on the ground and go down. This continues relentlessly. In the same manner the living beings go around the wheel of saṃsāra. Birth and death go on one after the other. Death after birth; birth after death. The cups come up to the ground holding water just like we come to the earth with our pāpa and puṇya incurred as our prārabdha. Just like the cups empty the water and descend back to the well, we enjoy or suffer our prārabdhakarma and then die. Again we are born because of sañcitakarma. This is what is expressed by the ghatīyantra-nyāya. This is analogous to the happiness and sorrow which a human experiences during his life. A poet expresses this as follows, “O rich man! You have been blinded by your riches and you have become foolish. You mockingly laugh at destitutes? The opulence is fickle. See the cups in the ghatīyantra. The empty ones become full, and the filled ones become empty.”
80. Ghaṭṭakuṭīprabhāta-nyāya
Ghaṭṭakuṭī means the toll booth. Someone was traveling with a bullock cart. There was a toll booth in the way and the night was approaching. To avoid the toll he thought of an idea. Take a deviation when the booth is nearby. Then in the dark circumvent the booth and join the road after crossing it! He did likewise and took the deviation which led him to the forest and made him lose his way in the dark. After wandering around finally by dawn he somehow found his way out only to connect back to the main road right at the entrance of the toll booth! Thus all the effort leads to such a futile venture, this nyāya is used to describe it.
81. Ghuṇākṣara-nyāya
Ghuṇa is a termite like insect found in the wood. It makes incisions in the planks or pillars of the house resembling lines. Those lines look like alphabets sometimes; an 'a' or a 'u' or some other letter might appear. The worm of course has no intention to carve out letters! Like this unintentionally sometimes some events happen which look as though they were done intentionally. This nyāya is used to describe such events.
82. Cakrabhramaṇa-nyāya
The potter turns the wheel and even after he stops, the wheel keeps turning for a while. That is because of the initial momentum which was imparted before. In many situations even though the impetus dies the activity which was started because of that continues for a while. In such situations this nyāya is used. All philosophers agree that mokṣa can be attained by jñāna. Let’s assume someone attains jñāna because of a benevolent guru. He should instantaneously attain mokṣa too. Then how would a jñānin continue to be alive? How can he still bear the mortal body? Isn’t someone still bound to the saṃsāra as long as they are bound to their bodies? Advaita-vedāntins answer this as follows. Even after attaining jñāna the body still stays as per this nyāya till the prārabdhakarma is exhausted. Till the initial momentum is present, the cycle of life goes on; likewise even a jīvanmukta will live for sometime.
83. Cālanī-nyāya
Cālanī means a sieve. Sieving results in the important stuff like the atta to fall through the sieve and the useless stuff being retained or the useless stuff like the broken grains and the husk fall through and the full grains are retained. By any means one wants to collect useful things and discard the rest. To describe such a situation this nyāya is used.
There is a different interpretation. When one of the holes in the sieve is covered, the atta still falls through some other holes. Likewise one flaw though covered doesn’t remove the other flaws.
84. Candracandrikā-nyāya
The moon is Candra and the moonlight is Candrikā. Neither can exist without the other. They are inseparable. Such inseparability is exemplified using this nyāya. Bhavānī is the manifestation of śakti. One half of the supreme being, Parameśvara. Like the candracandrikā-nyāya Bhavānī is the śakti residing in Parameśvara.
85. Citraturaga-nyāya
The horse in a painting isn’t a real horse. We instruct kids that it is a horse. They also believe it. It helps in understanding how the real horse looks. “asatye vartmani sthitvā satyaṃ samīhate” says Bhartṛhari in vākyapadīyaṃ. We stand in the path of untruth and try to understand the truth. For an advaitin there is no dvaita in reality. But for the sake of day to day activities he has to accept it at a mundane level. Otherwise there will be no distinction between the preceptor and pupil, or śāstra and upadeśa and everything becomes futile.
86. Citrāṅganā-nyāya
There are people who are mesmerized by a beautiful woman in a painting. What does it lead to? Something which looks real but isn’t can be described by this nyāya. The mirage might entice you; it will not satisfy your thirst. The fire in a painting will not burn you. This is the basis of citrānala-nyāya. The same is exposited in citrāmṛta-nyāya. The nectar in the painting won’t provide one the power of immortality.
87. Cintāmaṇiṃ parityajya kācamaṇigrahaṇa-nyāya
Cintāmaṇi is the gemstone which fulfills all the wishes as soon as one thinks about the wishes. When that was available some fool refused it and instead got hold of some glass beads!
In the famous viśvaguṇādarśa-campū there is a passage which goes
“गव्यं दुग्धमपास्य पास्यति जनः को वा यवागूरसम्”
[who indeed will throw away the milk and partake of the rice gruel?]
Another poet laments
जन्मेदम् वन्ध्यतां नीतं भवभोगोपलिप्सया ।
काचमूल्येन विक्रीतो हन्त चिन्तामणिर्मया ॥[My life itself was wasted in going after worldly pleasures! Alas! I sold the wish-fulfilling gem (cintāmaṇi) in exchange for a useless glass bead!]
In many treatises we see that the mokṣa is often compared to the cintāmaṇi while the worldly pleasures are compared to the glass bead.
This is the tenth part of the multi-part translation of the Kannada book "Sandarbha Sukti" by Mahamahopadhyaya Vidwan Dr. N Ranganatha Sharma. Thanks to Dr. Sharada Chaitra for granting us permission to translate this wonderful work. The original in Kannada can be read here
