Sūtra 4.2.5 (Body is two-fold: sexually produced, and asexually produced)

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 4.2.5:

अणुसंयोगस्त्वप्रतिषिद्धः ॥ ४.२.४ ॥

aṇusaṃyogastvapratiṣiddhaḥ || 4.2.4 ||

tatra—therein, amongst terrene, aqueous, and other bodies; śarīram—body, terrene body; dvividham—two fold; yonijam—sex-begotten, sexually generated; ayonijam—not sexually gene rated; ca—and.

5. Of these, the body is two-fold:—sex-born and not sex-born.

Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:

(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)

He divides the body:

[Read sūtra 4.2.5 above]

Of these, i.e., among terrene, aqueous, and other bodies, the terrene body is two-fold. What are the two kinds? In answer, he says, ‘sex-born and not-sex-born.’ Aqueous, igneous, and aerial bodies, well-known in the spheres of Varuṇa, Aditya, and Vāyu, are entirely a-sexual. A-sexuality means independence of the commixing of semen and blood. The bodies of gods and sages are also a-sexual, according to the text of revelation, “Manu and others, the mind-born or desire-born of Brahmā.” If it be asked how there can be an effect without a cause, we reply that the female organ of generation is not a cause essential to or determining corporeity, as it does not apply to the bodies of worms, mosquitoes, etc., produced by warmth. The possession of a particular constitution also is not proved, since our bodies are different in appearance in comparision with the bodies of gods and sages.

The sexual body, again, is two-fold, womb-born and egg-born. Womb-born are bodies of men and animals, wild and domestic, the womb being the name given to the receptacle of the embryo. The bodies of birds and reptiles are egg-born. Snakes, worms, fishes, etc., also are really reptiles, since it is their nature to crawl about.

Trees and the like also are no doubt so many kinds of bodies, being the seat of experience (i.e., the field wherein particular souls reap the consequences of their acts in previous births). For without the characteristic of being the seat of experience, life, death, sleep, waking, use of medicine, propagation of the seed, approaching the agreeable, avoiding the disagreeable, etc., would be impossible. And growth and the healing up of wounds and fractures, which prove experience, are manifest in them.

There is also the sacred text:

narmādātīrasambhūtāḥ śaralārjanapādapāḥ |
narmādātoyasaṃsparśāt te yānti paramāṃ gatim ||

“The Śarala and Arjuna trees, which grow on the banks of the Narmadā from contact with the waters of the Narrmadā, attain to the highest state hereafter,” etc. And also,

“In the cemetery grows a tree haunted by herons and vultures, etc.,” etc. Yet germinant bodies do not evidently possess activity or movement and senses, and they are therefore not treated as bodies.—5.

Commentary: The Vivṛti of Jayanārāyaṇa:

(English extracts of Jayanārāyaṇa Tarkapañcānana’s Vivṛti or ‘gloss’ called the Kaṇādasūtravivṛti from the 17th century)

That trees, etc., are bodies (i.e., ground of the experience of the consequences of acts) is evidenced by the text of Manu, viz., “A man acquires the condition of an immovable existence, by faults of action, born of the body.”