Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 3.2.15, 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 5 (‘another objection’) contained in Chapter 2—Of the Inference of Soul and Mind—of Book III (of soul and mind).
Sūtra 3.2.15 (Another objection)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 3.2.15:
देवदत्तो गच्छतीत्युपचारादभिमानात्तावच्छरीरप्रत्यक्षो ऽहङ्कारः ॥ ३.२.१५ ॥
devadatto gacchatītyupacārādabhimānāttāvaccharīrapratyakṣo 'haṅkāraḥ || 3.2.15 ||
devadattaḥ—Devadatta; gacchati—goes; iti—this; upacārāt—from transference; Abhimānāt, from fancy,
reference to Soul, Conceit, Egotism, or Self-identification. Tāvat, because, therefore. Śarīrāpratykṣaḥ having the body as the object. Ahaṅkāraḥ, ahaṃkāra. The intuition of I, I-ness.
15. The intuition of ‘I’ has the body for its object. Therefore to say that, in ‘Devadatta goes,’ there is a transference (of epithet), is a mere fancy.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
He apprehends another objection:
[Read sūtra 3.2.15 above]
‘Ahaṅkāraḥ,’ i.e., the intuition of ‘I.’ It is ‘Śarīrapratyakṣaḥ,’ i.e., that which has the body as the percept or subject-matter. You have determined that the intuition or, for the matter of that the expression, “Devadatta goes,” is due to transference. Now, this transference is a fancied one, because such intuitions and expressions as “I am fair,” “I am lean,” “I am fortunate, my birth is a mere repetition,” and the like, cannot be reconciled on the theory of transference. This is the meaning.—15.