Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 7.1.2, 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 2 (‘what attributes are non-eternal’) contained in Chapter 1—Of Colour, Taste, Smell, and Touch, and Magnitude—of Book VII (of the examination of attributes and of combination).
Sūtra 7.1.2 (What attributes are non-eternal)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 7.1.2:
पृथिव्यादि रूपरसगन्धस्पर्शा द्रव्यानित्यत्वादनित्याश्च ॥ ७.१.२ ॥
pṛthivyādi rūparasagandhasparśā dravyānityatvādanityāśca || 7.1.2 ||
pṛthivi-ādi-rūpa-rasa-gandha-sparśāḥ—the Colour, Taste Smell, and Touch of Earth, etc; , i.e., of earth—Water, Fire, and Air; dravyā-anityatvāt—on account of the non-eternality of the substances in which they reside; anityaḥ—non-eternal; ca—also.
2. The Colour, Taste, Smell, and Touch of Earth, Water, Fire, and Air, are also non-eternal, on account of the non-eternality of their substrata.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
Now, the examination of Attributes, as Attributes, is the subject of the seventh book. Of this, in the first Chapter, there are five sections, viz., (1) the examination of Attributes as eternal, (2) the examination of Attributes as non-etenal, (3) the examination of Attributes due to the action of heat, (4) the examination of Attributes which appear of function in more substances than one, e.g., Number, etc., and (5) the examination of measure or extension. Herein he states the non-eternality of the four Attributes, colour, etc.
[Read sūtra 7.1.2 above]
Of the wholes made up of parts, beginning with Earth, and ending with Air, the four Attributes, colour, and the following, are non-eternal. Although other Attributes also, being present in whole made up of parts, are really non-eternal, yet (they are not referred to here, because) their destruction is also due to other causes. The four Attributes, beginning with colour, disappear only on the destruction of their substrata, and not in consequence of another, and contradictory, Attribute. ‘Dravya-anityatvāt:’ The meaning is that the non-eternality of the dependent Attributes is on account of the non-eternality of substances upon which they depend.—2.