Читать книгу The Rise of Wisdom Moon - Krishna mishra - Страница 40

introduction

as taught in the Veda. Then, having given rise to others—Sanaka, Sanandana, etc.—he caused them to maintain the law whose characteristic is disengagement (nivrtti) and whose characteristic is knowledge and dispassion. For twofold is the law taught in the Veda—that having the characteristic of engagement and that having the characteristic of disengagement—and this is the cause for the world’s enduring. That which is the basis for the manifest well-being and beatitude of creatures, that law has been upheld for long ages by those who aspire for the good, brahmins and others, according to their caste (varna) and life-station (asrama).17

As they are described here, pravrtti and nivrtti are complementary processes, that together are necessary so that the world is upheld overall. Krishna·mishra underscores this point at the very beginning of “The Rise of Wisdom Moon,” in proclaiming the need to balance the festivities of the king’s reinstallation with a work devoted to the “sentiment of peace,” and, more pointedly still, in writing that:

The divine light is by nature pacific, so that, if for whatever reason it suffers modification, it abides as it is in its essence. [Thus Gopala] undertook to shore up on this earth the rule of the princes of the lunar line, when they were uprooted by the Chedis’ lord … [S]uch persons, ornaments of manliness, who are of a piece with Lord Narayana [Vishnu], descend to earth for the sake of beings and when they have completed their tasks attain peace once again. (1.16–18)

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