Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 7.1.10, 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 0 (‘the atomic is the opposite of...’) contained in Chapter 1—Of Colour, Taste, Smell, and Touch, and Magnitude—of Book VII (of the examination of attributes and of combination).
Sūtra 7.1.10 (The Atomic Is The Opposite Of...)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 7.1.10:
अतो विपरितमणु ॥ ७.१.१० ॥
ato viparitamaṇu || 7.1.10 ||
ataḥ—of this; viparītaṃ—the contrary; aṇu—the atomic, small, or minute.
10. The contrary of this is the atomic.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
[Full title: The atomic is the opposite of the large or massive; the short, of the long]
Having demonstrated magnitude and length, he now demonstrates atomic-ness or minuteness.
[Read sūtra 7.1.10 above]
‘Ataḥ,’ i.e., from large or massive measure or extension established by perception; ‘viparītaṃ,’ (i.e., divergent). The meaning is that that is atomic measure or extension. The contrariety arises from imperceptibility, and from contrariety of causes also. For in the case of magnitude or massiveness, magnitude, multiplicity, and accretion are the causes, while in the case of atomic-ness or minuteness, duality inhering in the cause and produced by the relative understanding of God. is the cause. By this is also to be understood that the contrary of length is shortness, and here too the contrariety is as aforesaid.—10.