Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 5.2.15, 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 (‘pleasure and pain are marks of action of mind’) contained in Chapter 2—Of Non-volitional Action—of Book V (of investigation of action).
Sūtra 5.2.15 (Pleasure and pain are marks of action of mind)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 5.2.15:
आत्मेन्द्रियमनोर्ऽथसन्निकर्षात् सुख दुःखे ॥ ५.२.१५ ॥
ātmendriyamanor'thasannikarṣāt sukha duḥkhe || 5.2.15 ||
ātmā-indriya-manaḥ-artha-sannikarṣāt—from contact of soul, sense, mind, and object; sukha-duḥkhe—pleasure and pain.
15. Pleasure and pain (results) from contact of soul, sense, mind, and object.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
But, it may be objected, there is no proof that action is produced in the mind. Hence he says:
[Read sūtra 5.2.15 above]
‘Pleasure and pain’ is indicative; cognition, volition, etc., are to he understood. The universality or ubiquity of mind has been already refuted and its atom-ness established. It has also been stated that the non-production of cognitions simultaneously is the mark of mind. There could, therefore, be no pleasure and pain at all, without the conjunction of mind with the respective localities of the senses. The meaning is that, did no action take place in mind, there could be no feeling in the form of “Pleasure in my foot,” “Pain in my head,” etc. Although all the particular attributes of the soul depend upon contact of mind, yet pleasure and pain are (alone expressly) mentioned, because, on account of their intensity, they are very manifest.—15.