Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 3.2.8, 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 8 (‘therefore soul proved by revelation’) contained in Chapter 2—Of the Inference of Soul and Mind—of Book III (of soul and mind).
Sūtra 3.2.8 (Therefore Soul proved by Revelation)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 3.2.8:
तस्मादागमिकः ॥ ३.२.८ ॥
tasmādāgamikaḥ || 3.2.8 ||
tasmāt—therefore, because the Soul cannot be proved by reasoning; āgamikaḥ—scriptural, proved by the revealed texts.
8. Therefore (the Soul is) proved by Revelation.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
Are then the texts of the Vedas, for instance, “He is the Soul, in whom all sins are killed,” etc., meaningless? Apprehending this, the same objector says:
[Read sūtra 3.2.8 above]
The Soul is really proved by Revelation only, but not by inference, since visible and commonly-observed marks do not exist. Therefore, mental vision of the principles or essences of things results from the proper hearing of the Upaniṣads, and not from the course of intellection. So that this Regulation (i.e., the Vaiśeṣika system), which teaches intellection, is no regulation. For, it is observed in the case of “ten ghosts, swimming across the river,” etc., that the cognition of the person who has representation of these things in his consciousness, arises only from the very instructions that ten ghosts dwell on this tree, that such and such an object floats across the river, etc.).—8,