Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 7.1.18, 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 8 (‘how measure or extension is destroyed’) contained in Chapter 1—Of Colour, Taste, Smell, and Touch, and Magnitude—of Book VII (of the examination of attributes and of combination).
Sūtra 7.1.18 (How Measure or Extension is destroyed)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 7.1.18:
अनित्ये ऽनित्यम् ॥ ७.१.१८ ॥
anitye 'nityam || 7.1.18 ||
anitye—in the non-eternal; anityaṃ—non-eternal, perishable.
18. In the non-eternal, (Measure or Extension also is) non-eternal.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
He now points out that which destroys (Measure or Extension):—
[Read sūtra 7.1.18 above]
All this four-fold Measure or Extension, being present in perishable substance, disappears only on the destruction of the substratum, and not on account of contradictory, other attributes.
Objection.—But the Measure or Extension of a water-pot is destroyed, although the water-pot still exists; how else, even after the breaking of the neck of the water-pot, can there be the recognition, “This is that very water-pot”?
Answer.—This is not the case, in as much as the destruction of the water-pot is necessary or inevitable, by the destruction of the substratum. For, it stands neither to reason nor to experience that, the binary atomic aggregates being destroyed on the destruction of the conjunction of two ultimate atoms, there is non-destruction of the tertiary atomic aggregates constituted by the binary ones, and of limestone, etc., constituted by the tertiary atomic aggregates.
Objection.—How then does the recognition arise?
Answer.—It is an error, like the recognition, “This is that very flame of the lamp.”
Objection.—But the recognition of the the lamp is certainly correct knowledge; whereas minuteness and magnitude undergo production and destruction.
Answer.—This cannot be maintained, because it has been already mentioned that their destruction is not possible without the destruction of their substratum.—18.