"The acquisitions, the impurities, the expedients, the localities, the perseverance, the purifications,
"The initiations, and the powers, are the eight pentads; and there are three functions."
The employment in the above line of the neuter numeral three (tríṇi), instead of the feminine three (tisraḥ), is a Vedic construction.
(a.) Acquisition is the fruit of an expedient while realising, and is divided into five members, viz., knowledge, penance, permanence of the body, constancy, and purity. Thus Haradattáchárya says: Knowledge, penance, permanence, constancy, and purity as the fifth.
(b.) Impurity is an evil condition pertaining to the soul. This is of five kinds, false conception and the rest. Thus Haradatta also says:—
"False conception, demerit, attachment, interestedness, and falling,
"These five, the root of bondage, are in this system especially to be shunned."
(c.) An expedient is a means of purifying the aspirant to liberation.
These expedients are of five kinds, use of habitation, and the rest. Thus he also says:—
"Use of habitation, pious muttering, meditation, constant recollection of Rudra,