Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 8.1.3, 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 3 (‘cognition, how produced’) contained in Chapter 1—Of Presentative Cognition—of Book VIII (of ordinary cognition by means of conjunction or combination).
Sūtra 8.1.3 (Cognition, how produced)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 8.1.3:
ज्ञाननिर्देशे ज्ञाननिष्पत्तिविधिरुक्तः ॥ ८.१.३ ॥
jñānanirdeśe jñānaniṣpattividhiruktaḥ || 8.1.3 ||
jñāna-nirddeśe—in the differentiation of a particular cognition; jñāna-niṣpatti-vidhiḥ—mode or process of production of cognition; uktaḥ—stated, described.
3. The mode of the production of Cognition is being described, in connection with the differentiation of a particular Cognition.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
In order to elucidate how Cognition is produced, in what circumstances, and from what causes, he says:
[Read sūtra 8.1.3 above]
A cognition should be marked off or distinguished from other cognitions, in respect of the mode of its production, in respect of its subject matter, and in respect of its property. Now, differentiation of cognition having to be made, the process of the production of cognition is going to be described. This is the meaning. In ‘uktaḥ,’ the past participle affix kta is used in the sense of incipient action.—3.
Commentary: The Vivṛti of Jayanārāyaṇa:
(English extracts of Jayanārāyaṇa Tarkapañcānana’s Vivṛti or ‘gloss’ called the Kaṇādasūtravivṛti from the 17th century)
What is the cause of cognition? There being this expectancy, he says:
‘Jñāna-nirddeśe,’ i.e., in the third book, where enunciation of cognition has been made. There too the process of the production of cognition has been described. The meaning is that the causes of cognition have been mentioned in. the aphorism, “That (i.e., knowledge) which is produced from the contact of the soul, the sense and the object is other (than a false mark)” (III. i. 18.) Thus, the soul is the combi native cause of cognition, conjunction of the soul and the mind is the non-combinative cause, and contact or contiguity of the object is the efficient cause. This has been mentioned in that very aphorism. It should be observed that the causality of contact has been stated under th© topic of perception.