Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 5.1.6, 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 6 (‘action in the body’) contained in Chapter 1—Of Voluntary Action—of Book V (of investigation of action).
Sūtra 5.1.6 (Action in the body)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 5.1.6:
आत्मकर्म हस्तसंयोगाच्च ॥ ५.१.६ ॥
ātmakarma hastasaṃyogācca || 5.1.6 ||
ātma-karma—action of the body, and its members; hasṭa-saṃyogāṭ—from conjunction with the hand; ca—and, also.
6. Action of the body and its members is also from conjunction with the hand.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
“well,” it may be asked, “conjunction with the soul exercising volition is the cause of the action which is produced in the body or in a part of the body. Why is it not so in the present instance”? Hence he says:
[Read sūtra 5.1.6 above]
The word ‘ātmā,’ by transference, means the body and its parts. For, impossibility of order or coherence in the text, is the germ of a transference of epithet. Thus the action which appears in a part of the body also, that is, in the hand, arises from the conjunction of the hand and the pestle. The would ‘ca’ implies also impetus. In the action of the hand, conjunction with the hand is really the non-combi-native cause. There is no deviation or breach of uniformity in this respect. This conjunction is sometimes conjunction with the soul exercising volition, and sometimes conjunction of the hand with pestle, etc., possessing impetus, as is the case with the action of the body and its parts, of a mad man.—6.