Śaṅkara Miśra’s Introduction

Salutation to Śrī Gaṇeśa!

I bow to Hara who has the Heavenly River playing on the lap of His uptied matted locks, and whose forehead is adorned with the Embellisher of the Night.

My Salutations constantly reach those two, Kaṇāda and Bhavanātha, by whom I have been thoroughly enlightened in the Vaiśeṣika System.

Note.—Kaṇāda here does not refer to the author of the Vaiśeṣika-Sūtra, hut to a well-known Vaiśeṣika teacher of a recent date.

Bhavanātha was the father of Śaṅkara Miśra.

May success attend this venture of mine who, like a funambulist in the air, walk here without any support, with the only help of the Sūtra.

Note.—Sūtra—a piece of rope; an aphorism; just as a rope-dancer walks in the air with the help of a Sūtra (rope), so the commentator traverses the philosophy of the Vaiśeṣikas with the help of the Sūtra (aphorisms) of Kaṇāda.

Human existence is subject to threefold afflictions. These afflictions are partly ādhyātmika, i.e., bodily and mental. They are partly ādhibhautika, i.e., caused by natural agencies, e. g. man, beast, bird, reptile and the immobile. And they are partly ādhidaivika, i.e., caused by supernatural powers, such as Yakṣa, Rākṣasa, Vināyaka, etc. Discriminative men, struck with the threefold afflictions, looked for the root-cause of the cessation of the threefold afflictions. They gathered from the various Śrutis (Revelations), Smṛtis (Recollections), Itihāsas (Histories), and Purāṇas (Cosmogonies), that it is the immediate intuition or direct vision of the principle of the self, or simply, self-realization, which is that cause. They then desired to know the path also which led to the attainment of self-realization. Accordingly they approached the very kind sage (muni) Kaṇāda.

Now, the Muni Kaṇāda had accomplished the knowledge of the principles (tattvas), dispassion, and lordliness. He thought within himself that the knowledge of the principles of the six padārthas (predicables), by means of their resemblances and differences, is the only royal road to the attainment of self-realization, and that that would be easily accomplished by the disciples through the dharma (Merit or Worth) of renunciation. He therefore resolved first to teach them dharma alone with reference to its essential form and with reference to its characteristics, and then to teach them also the six padārthas by means of their enumeration, definition, and demonstration.

Note.—Dharma of renunciation.—The indirect method of Self-realization is Pravṛtti Marga, i. e. through and by means of wordly experience. The direct method of Self-realization is Nivṛtti Mārga, i. e. through and by means of abandonment of worldly experience.

Hence, to invite their attention, he proposes.