Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 5.2.21, 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 1 (‘space, time, ether, and soul are void of action’) contained in Chapter 2—Of Non-volitional Action—of Book V (of investigation of action).
Sūtra 5.2.21 (Space, Time, Ether, and Soul are void of action)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 5.2.21:
दिक्कालावाकाशं च क्रियावद्वैधर्म्यान्निष्क्रियाणि ॥ ५.२.२१ ॥
dikkālāvākāśaṃ ca kriyāvadvaidharmyānniṣkriyāṇi || 5.2.21 ||
dik-kālau—space and time; ākāśaṃ—ether; ca—and also; kriyāvat-vaidharmyāt—because of difference from that which possesses activity; niṣkriyāṇi—inactive.
21. Space, Time, and also Ether are inactive, because of their difference from that which possesses activity.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
Having thus finished the parenthetical section on darkness, in two aphorism, he begins the section on voidness of action:
[Read sūtra 5.2.21 above]
The word ‘Ca’ brings in the soul. Difference from that which possesses activity lies in the imponderableness or incorporiety of space, etc., for activity always accompanies corporeity or form.—21.