Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 5.1.5, 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 (‘above continued’) contained in Chapter 1—Of Voluntary Action—of Book V (of investigation of action).
Sūtra 5.1.5 (Above continued)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 5.1.5:
अभिघातान्मुसलसंयोगाद्धस्ते कर्म ॥ ५.१.५ ॥
abhighātānmusalasaṃyogāddhaste karma || 5.1.5 ||
abhighātāt—from impact; muṣala-saṃyogāt—from conjunction with the pestle; hoste—in the hand; karma—action.
5. The action (i.e., upward motion) in the hand is from impact, and from conjunction with the pestle.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
“Whence then at that time the upward motion in the hand”? In answer to this, he says:
[Read sūtra 5.1.5 above]
As, when the pestle flies upwards, the iron-ring at the end of the pestle rises upwards, so the hand also at that time springs upwards. Here by the word, ‘impact,’ re-action (i.e., recoil) produced by impact, is expressed by transference. By the vigorous action of the up-going pestle, accompanied with the impact, re-action or recoil is produced in the pestle itself which is the substratum of that substratum of that action. Subject to the re-action so effected, upward motion appears in the hand also, in consequence of the conjunction of the hand and the pestle, as its non-combinative cause; and not that this upward motion has for its non-combinative cause conjunction with the soul exercising volition, for the hand rises involuntarily together with the pestle. This is the idea.—5.