Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 5.1.4, 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 4 (‘action in the hand’) contained in Chapter 1—Of Voluntary Action—of Book V (of investigation of action).
Sūtra 5.1.4 (Action in the hand)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 5.1.4:
तथात्मसंयोगो हस्तकर्मणि ॥ ५.१.४ ॥
tathātmasaṃyogo hastakarmaṇi || 5.1.4 ||
tathā—the same, i; e., not a cause. ātma-saṃyogaḥ—conjunction with the soul; hasta-karmaṇi—in the action of the hand.
4. In the case of action of the hand, conjunction with the soul is not a cause.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
With a view to specify a particular cause of the action of the hand, as it flies upward with the pestle, and for the purpose of disproving the non-combinative causality of conjunction with the soul exercising volition, he says:
[Read sūtra 5.1.4 above]
In the case of the action of the hand, as it springs upwards with the pestle, ‘conjunction with the soul,’ i. e, conjunction with the soul exercising volition, is ‘the same, i.e., not a cause. The term ‘not-a-cause’ which appears in the preceding aphorism, is carried over here by ‘tathā.’ the same.—4.
Commentary: The Vivṛti of Jayanārāyaṇa:
(English extracts of Jayanārāyaṇa Tarkapañcānana’s Vivṛti or ‘gloss’ called the Kaṇādasūtravivṛti from the 17th century)
This too is illustrative. If should be understood that that volition also is not a non-common efficient cause.