Vimokṣa-niścaya: Pañcaśikha’s Analysis of Aggregates, Guṇas, and Tyāga (मोक्षनिर्णयः)
भीष्म उवाच दोषैर्मूलादवच्चिन्नैरविंशुद्धात्मा विमुच्यते । विनाशयति सम्भूतमयस्मयमयो यथा । तथा कृतात्मा सहजैदररषि्नश्यति तामसै:
bhīṣma uvāca doṣair mūlād avacchinnair aviśuddhātmā vimucyate | vināśayati sambhūtam ayasmayam ayo yathā | tathā kṛtātmā sahajair doṣair naśyati tāmasaiḥ ||
ビーシュマは言った。「王よ、過失がその根とともに断ち切られるとき、かつて不浄であった内なる自己は清められ、世の束縛から解き放たれる。鉄で作られた道具が、同じく鉄の鎖を断ち切り、その過程で自らも摩耗して尽きてゆくように、鍛えられ清められた知性もまた、タマス(暗昧)より生じた生得の欠陥を滅し、滅し終えると自らも静まり、安らぎに帰する。」
भीष्म उवाच
Freedom comes when defects are removed along with their root-cause (ignorance/delusion). A purified, disciplined intellect can eliminate innate tamasic tendencies; once its task is done, even that corrective instrument becomes still, indicating the settling of mental activity after purification.
In the Śānti Parva instruction to Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīṣma explains a method of inner purification: destroy faults at their source. He illustrates it with a simile—iron cutting iron—showing how a tool used to remove bondage may itself be worn away, paralleling how the refined intellect quiets after removing tamasic defects.