Text 138

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Text 138:

अथ कर्मपदार्थनिरूपणम् । उत्क्षेपणादीनां पञ्चानाम् अपि कर्मत्वसम्बन्धः । एकद्रव्यवत्त्वं क्षणिकत्वं मूर्तद्रव्यवृत्तित्वम् अगुणवत्त्वं गुरुत्वद्रवत्वप्रयत्नसम्योगजत्वं स्वकार्यसम्योगविरोधित्वं सम्योगविभागनिरपेक्षकारणत्वम् असमवायिकारणत्वं स्वपराश्रयसमवेतकार्यारम्भकत्वं समानजातीयानारम्भकत्वं द्रव्यानारम्भकत्वं च प्रतिनियतजातियोगित्वम् । दिग्विशिष्टकार्यारम्भकत्वं च विशेषः ॥ १३८ ॥

atha karmapadārthanirūpaṇam | utkṣepaṇādīnāṃ pañcānām api karmatvasambandhaḥ | ekadravyavattvaṃ kṣaṇikatvaṃ mūrtadravyavṛttitvam aguṇavattvaṃ gurutvadravatvaprayatnasamyogajatvaṃ svakāryasamyogavirodhitvaṃ samyogavibhāganirapekṣakāraṇatvam asamavāyikāraṇatvaṃ svaparāśrayasamavetakāryārambhakatvaṃ samānajātīyānārambhakatvaṃ dravyānārambhakatvaṃ ca pratiniyatajātiyogitvam | digviśiṣṭakāryārambhakatvaṃ ca viśeṣaḥ || 138 ||

Text (138): Throwing upwards and the other four are all related (belong) to the genus ‘Action’—(I-1-7).

They belong to a single substance (at a time) (I-i-17); they are momentary (II-ii-25); they reside only in corporeal substances (II-i-21); are without, qualities (I-i-17); are produced by gravity, fluidity, effort and conjunction (I-i-29); are counteracted by conjunction produced by themselves (I-i-14); are the independent causes of conjunctions and disjunctions (I-i-17, 20, 30); they serve only as ṇon-material causes (X-ii-3); are productive of effects inhering in their own substrates as well as in the substrates of others; they never produce effects of the same kind as themselves (I-i-11, 25, 31); they are not productive of substances (I-i-21, 22, 31); they belong to distinct well-defined classes. The distinctive feature of each of the five kinds of Actions, consists in the direction in which its effect is produced.

Commentary: The Nyāyakandalī of Śrīdhara.

(English rendering of Śrīdhara’s commentary called Nyāyakandalī or Nyāyakaṇḍalī from the 10th century)

Salutation to the Wearer of the Moon-crescent on His Head! He who is the seed of the worldly tree, the Bridge in the Ocean of metempsychosis, the Moon pouring out the nectar of true knowledge!

The author now proceeds to describe the points of similarity among the five kinds of potion, and also those points by which these are distinguishable from Other categories of thought.

There is a certain genus by the name of ‘Action’; and it is only throwing, upwards and the other four that belong to this genus.

They belong to a single substance—i.e., in any one substance at one time there is only one action, and one single action exists in only one substance at a time. If in any one substance-two different and contrary actions existed at one and the same time, then, in as much they would counteract each other, none of them could produce conjunctions and disjunctions in any definite direction; and as such they would tail to fulfil one of the necessary qualifications of ‘Action’—viz the character of being the independent cause of conjunctions and disjunctions. If the two actions inhering in the same substance were not mutually contradictory, then as any one of the two would be enough to explain the particular conjunction and disjunction in a definite direction, there would be no need for admitting the existence of the other.

Similarly, one and the same action can not exist in more than one substance; because as a matter of fact, we find that when an action makes one substance move in a definite direction, it does not set into motion any other substance.

Actions are momentary—i.e., quickly destructible.

They exist in corporeal substances—i.e., only in such substances as have limited dimensions............They are counteracted or destroyed by the conjunctions produced by themselves—and not by the Disjunctions; as if they were destroyed by the disjunctions, then we could not have another contact following after that disjunction. They are the independent cause of conjunctions and disjunctions,—in producing Speed, Action stands in need of the help of particular propulsions and strokes; but not so in the production of conjunctions and disjunctions.

They serve only as non-material causes—and not, like Qualities, as intsrumental causes also.

They are productive of effects—in the shape of Conjunctions and Disjunctions—pervading over their own substrates, as also over the substrates of others. They never produce effects of the same kind as themselves; if one action were to produce another action like itself, then when one man would move, there would be no stopping for him,—one motion giving rise to another motion ad infinitum.

It might be argued that the motion would cease by the cessation of his desire to move and that of the effort put forth by him. But in that case this desire and effort, and not the Action, would be regarded as the cause of the subsequent motions; and in support of this we have the argument—‘one Action cannot be’ the cause of another action,—because it is an action—like the ultimate Action or, ‘The action in question is not producible by action,—because it is an action,—like the first action.’

They are not productive of substances as a substance is produced only after the Action has been stopped by the subsequent Conjunction produced by it.

Each of the five—Throwing upwards &c.—belong to distinct well-defined classes, like ‘utkṣepaṇa’ and the like.

All the above constitute the points of similarity among the five Actions; and what distinguishes each of these from the others is the direction towards which its effects tend. This the author proceeds to describe in the following texts: