THE SADANGA YOGA

commentators on these verses of the SU and also Ravisrljiii'ina in his GBh
(these stanzas are also quoted in the -,?Y) diverge on only a few points (see
below pp. 115-19,280-83)40.
S.B. Dasgupta (1969: 107-8) gives an interesting explanation of the
meaning of the five signs mentioned in the GSU according to a MS
commentary on the MmmakaJikatantra preserved in Paris (Bibliotheque
Nationale, Paris, Sans. No. 83, p. 45b): "In the commentary on the Mmmakalika-tantra
it has been explained that the sign of mirage signifies the
knowledge about the nature of the world, which at that time appears to the
yogin to be as illusory as a mirage. When the illusory nature of the
Dhmmas is thus realised, there remains no appearance (pratibhasa) , and,
therefore, everything appears to be smoky, a mere illusory happening
through the collocation of the causes and conditions like the origination of
an elephant in magic; this dependent origination (pratitya-samutpada) is
the smoky nature of the world and hence is the second sign. Again as for
the third sign it is said that as the firefly shines in the sky now and then for
a single moment, so also in this stage perfect knowledge appears through
the void-nature of the Dharmas like momentary flashes and hence is the
appropriateness of the third sign. In the fourth stage knowledge becomes as
bright as a burning lamp and in the fifth or the final stage it becomes like
the clear blue mid-day sky of autumn".
2) The second limb of the yoga, contemplation (dhyiina), consists in
stabilizing the mind and consolidating the image arising at the end of the
signs. It takes place in five phases corresponding to the five moments into
which the first of the four dhyanas (jhana) was divided in ancient
Buddhism41 : examination (vitm-ka), analysis (vieara), joy (Pdtl) , bliss
(sukha) and the fixedness of thought on a single object (eittaikagratif)42. In
described in the HT (I.ii, 28) and explained in the HTPT by Vajragarbha (Kaiser Library,
Kathmandu, MS 128, NGMPP, Mf. CI4/6, fol. 42a).
Stanzas' of the HT are numbered here according to the edition by G.W. Fan'ow and l.
Menon (1992).
40 Commenting on SU, 24-34, rNam-par rgyal-ba-dbang-po (Vijayendra) strictly
follows Naropa's gloss (see dBan mdor-brtan-pa'i bljed-byang (SUTippaJ}lJ, Peking ed.,
vol. 48, # 2104, fols. 6b3-lOb4).
41 Cf., for instance, Sarpyutta Nikaya XVLix-xi (PTS, vol. II, p. 210 ff), Majjhima
Nikaya l.v, 3 Mahavedallasutta (PTS, vol. I, p. 294), Digha Nikaya XXXIILi, 11 (PTS, vol.
III, p. 222). See also Zigmund-Cerbu 1963: 132; Griinbold 1983a: 32; Gnoli 1994: 96.
42 Sometimes cittaikagrata is called samtidhi: cf. Sarpyutta Nikaya XXXV, 99 and
commentary (Sarattha Pakasini by Buddhaghosa), ADhK VIII, 7 (ed. by S.D. Sastrl, p.
28