Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 6.2.14, 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 (‘desire and aversion produce dharma and adharma through inclination’) contained in Chapter 2—Of the Production of Dharma and A-dharma—of Book VI (of the investigation of dharma and a-dharma.).
Sūtra 6.2.14 (Desire and aversion produce dharma and adharma through inclination)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 6.2.14:
इच्छाद्वेषपूर्विका धर्माधर्म प्रवृत्तिः ॥ ६.२.१४ ॥
icchādveṣapūrvikā dharmādharma pravṛttiḥ || 6.2.14 ||
icchā-dveṣa-pūrvika—preceded by, or having for its antecedents, desire and aversion; dharma-adharma-pravṛttiḥ—Activity, tendency, inclination, or application to dharma and adharma.
14. Application to dharma and adharma has for its antecedents Desire and Aversion.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
Having thus enumerated the efficient causes of desire and aversion, desire and aversion being the efficient causes of dharma and adharma, he now points out that the causality of fault towards dharma and adharma operates through the medium of activity or inclination.
[Read sūtra 6.2.14 above]
‘Pravṛttih’ or employment in a prescribed action, is due to the link of desire, and in a prohibited action, e.g., killing, is due to the link of aversion. Employment, due to the link of desire, in sacrifices, etc., begets dharma; employment, due to the link of aversion, in killing, etc., begets adharma. These same desire and aversion cause the wheel of transmigration to revolve. Accordingly there is the aphorism of Gautāma, “Pravṛtti or employment is the operation or exeration of speech, mind, and body,” (Nyāya-Sūtra, 1. i. 17). Verbal employment is exertion of speech; it is meritorious, if it is for the expression of what is true, kind, and beneficial; it is sinful, if it is for the expression of what is nature, unkind, and baneful. By ‘Buddhiḥ,’ (mind), is meant that by which objects are cognised, i.e., mind. Therefore mental employment is compassion towards all creatures, and other activities. Bodily employment, such as almsgiving, ministration, etc., is tenfold as sinful, and tenfold as meritorious.—14.
Commentary: The Vivṛti of Jayanārāyaṇa:
(English extracts of Jayanārāyaṇa Tarkapañcānana’s Vivṛti or ‘gloss’ called the Kaṇādasūtravivṛti from the 17th century)
The aphorism has been framed in a general way. Hence no harm has been done to the production of dharma, etc., also from chance contact with the water of the Gaṅgā (the Ganges) and such other sources, even though desire and aversion do not exist here.