Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 8.1.7, 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 7 (‘substance, attiribute and action are causes of...’) contained in Chapter 1—Of Presentative Cognition—of Book VIII (of ordinary cognition by means of conjunction or combination).
Sūtra 8.1.7 (Substance, Attiribute and Action are causes of...)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 8.1.7:
द्रव्ये द्रव्यगुणकर्मापेक्षम् ॥ ८.१.७ ॥
dravye dravyaguṇakarmāpekṣam || 8.1.7 ||
dravye—in substance, Dravya-guṇa-karma-apekṣaṃ, dependent upon substance, attribute and action.
7. (Cognition), in the case of Substance, (is) dependent upon Substance, Attribute and Action.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
[Full title: Substance, Attiribute and Action are causes of cognition of Substance]
Is, then, in the case of substance also, cognition dependent only upon genus and species? To remove this curiosity, he says:
[Read sūtra 8.1.7 above]
“Cognition is produced”—this is the subject in discourse. “A white cow, possessing a bell, is going,”—this is a cognition. Here substance, the bell, is the distinction or that which serves to specify; ‘white’ denotes an attribute; ‘is going’ denotes action. Thus in specialized cognition or intuition of a thing distinguished with the possession of something else, there cannot be non-apprehension of the distinction or that which serves to specify, nor can such specialized intuition take place without relation to that which serves to specify. Hence in the cognition of substance there is dependence upon substance, attribute and action. Such is the import.—7.