Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 7.2.22, 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 (‘priority and posteriority in time, how produced’) contained in Chapter 2—Of Number, Separateness, Conjunction, etc.—of Book VII (of the examination of attributes and of combination).
Sūtra 7.2.22 (Priority and Posteriority in Time, how produced)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 7.2.22:
कारणपरत्वात् कारणापरत्वाच्च ॥ ७.२.२२ ॥
kāraṇaparatvāt kāraṇāparatvācca || 7.2.22 ||
kāraṇa-paratvāt—from priority of the cause; kāraṇāparatvāt—from posteriority of the cause; ca—and.
22. (Temporal Priority and temporal Posteriority are said, by suggestion, to arise respectively) from Priority of the cause and from Posteriority of the cause.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
He states a peculiarity in the case of temporal priority and posteriority.
[Read sūtra 7.2.22 above]
The cause of Priority and Posteriority is time. Priority and Posteriority belong to it. Conjunction of time which is the non-combinative cause of priority, and conjunction of time which is the non-combinative cause of posteriority are stated, by implication, as otherwise, the result would be want of congruity or syntactical connexion. For, priority and posteriority cannot be produced by priority and posteriority themselves. The terms, priority and posteriority, denote, by implication, conjunctions of time which are productive of them.—22.
Commentary: The Vivṛti of Jayanārāyaṇa:
(English extracts of Jayanārāyaṇa Tarkapañcānana’s Vivṛti or ‘gloss’ called the Kaṇādasūtravivṛti from the 17th century)
If the uses of prior (remote) and posterior (near) are produced by cognitions of remoteness and nearness, then, inasmuch as the cognition, Kāśī (Benares) is near in relation to Prayāga (Allahabad), refers also to Prayāga as its object subject-matter, why does not there arise the use of Posteriority (or nearness) in respect of Prayāga? Likewise, why is there not the use of Priority (or remoteness), in respect of Kāśī, etc., which also become the subject-matter of the cognition of remoteness?
He removes this incidental doubt.
‘Kāraṇa-paratvāt,’ i.e., owing to the priority or remoteness of the combinative cause; and also owing to its posteriority or nearness. The uses of priority and posteriority are only in respect of the combinative cause, but not in respect of anything else simply because it becomes the subject-matter of relative understanding. For use is determined by the object in respect of which the use arises. This is the import.