Ebook Tattva-Traya

"The Science of Salvation (Moksha Sástram)," says the greatest of the five great commentaries on the Dramidopanishad, "consists of two branches. The first of the branches is Tattva-param, i.e., treats of the constitution of things. The second branch is Upásana-para, i.e., proceeds to point out the course of conduct which the constitution of things requires of us."

The aphorisms here presented exhaustively treat the first branch of Salvation-science.

Our author's aphorisms on the second branch, entitled Srí-vachanabhushana, or The Good-Word Jewel, were translated by me at the instance of the Rev. Dr. Miller, Principal of the Madras Christian College, and about one hundred printed copies of the translation were sent by Dr. Miller to the Parliament of Religions held at Chicago in 1893. An abstract of the work thus sent, having been read on the 25th September 1893 before the Scientific Section of the said Parliament, is printed in Dr. Barrow's history of it.

Hard to understand as many of the aphorisms in The Good-Word Jewels were felt to be for want of a commentary, The Good-Word Jewel was nevertheless pronounced by the Rev. T. E. Slater, Bangalore, "a wonderful book," and I feel certain that, had Mr. Slater been furnished by me with a translation of the still more wonderful commentary, written on The Good-Word Jewel by our holy sage Vara-yogin, the effect on the reverend gentleman would have been much greater. About one-sixth of the translation of that commentary, i.e., so much of it as relates to the first of the six divisions of The Good-Word Jewel, is now complete in MSS, and the remainder yet remains to be written. It is my earnest prayer that the Lord will enable me to publish the whole, duly annotated.

In the case, however, of the aphorisms now presented, there is less obscurity in the text itself, and great portions, besides, of the lucid explanations of Vara-yogin - the very sage whose great commentary on The Good-Word Jewel has been already referred to - have been incorporated in my foot-notes.