Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 1.1.31, English translation, including commentaries such as the Upaskara of Shankara Mishra, the Vivriti of Jayanarayana-Tarkapanchanana and the Bhashya of Chandrakanta. The Vaisheshika Sutras teaches the science freedom (moksha-shastra) and the various aspects of the soul (eg., it's nature, suffering and rebirth under the law of karma). This is sutra 1 (‘above continued’) contained in Chapter 1—Of Substance, Attribute, and Action—of Book I (of the predicables).
Sūtra 1.1.31 (Above continued)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 1.1.31:
कारणसामान्ये द्रव्यकर्मणां कर्माकारणमुक्तम् ॥ १.१.३१ ॥
kāraṇasāmānye dravyakarmaṇāṃ karmākāraṇamuktam || 1.1.31 ||
kāraṇa-sāmānye—under the topic of causes in general; dravya-karmaṇām—of Substances and Action; karma—Action; akāraṇam—not cause; uktam—said.
31. Under the topic of causes in general, Action has been stated to be not a cause of Substances and Actions.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
But it has been already said that Substance and Action are not the effects of Action. Conjunction and Disjunction again are the effects of Conjunction and Disjunction alone. So that the affirmation of the Causality of Action here seems to be self-contradictory. So he says:—[Read sūtra 1.1.31 above]
The word ‘Kāraṇasāmānya’ denotes the topic of causes in general. Thus in the topic of the statement of causes in general. Action has been said to be not a cause of Substance and Action, and not that it is altogether a not-cause only, whereby the aphorism “Conjunctions and Disjunctions also are individually the products of Actions” might be destroyed.—31
Here ends the first chapter lesson of the First Book in the Commentary of Śaṅkara on the Vaiśeṣika aphorisms.