Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 4.1.13, 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 3 (‘attribute-ness and existence perceptible to all the senses’) contained in Chapter 1—Of Atoms—of Book IV (of the origin of bodies).
Sūtra 4.1.13 (Attribute-ness and existence perceptible to all the senses)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 4.1.13:
एतेन गुणत्वे भावे च सर्वेन्द्रियं ज्ञानं व्याख्यातम् ॥ ४.१.१३ ॥
etena guṇatve bhāve ca sarvendriyaṃ jñānaṃ vyākhyātam || 4.1.13 ||
etena—by this; guṇatve—in regard to attributeness; bhāve—in regard to existence; ca—and; sarvendriyam—omni-sensuous; Relating to all the senses. jñānam—knowledge; vyākhyātam—explained.
13. By this it is explained that knowledge in regard to attributeness and existence, is omni-sensuous or of all the senses.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
Colour, etc., are uni-sensuous or perceptible by the senses individually. Numbers, etc., are bi-sensuous or perceptible by two senses jointly. Pleasure, etc., are mental or perceptible by the inner sense. So that it results that the two Genera, Attribute-ness and existence, are omni-sensuous. So he says:
[Read sūtra 4.1.13 above]
Capability to apprehend the individuals, is itself the capability to apprehend the class. And if the individuals are respectively apprehended by all the senses, then it results that also the classes, viz., Attribute-ness and Existence, are apprehensible by all the senses. This is the meaning.—13.
Here ends the first chapter of the fourth book in the Commentary of Śaṅkara upon the Vaiśeṣika Aphorisms.