Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 8.1.10, 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 (‘exception to the above’) contained in Chapter 1—Of Presentative Cognition—of Book VIII (of ordinary cognition by means of conjunction or combination).
Sūtra 8.1.10 (Exception to the above)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 8.1.10:
द्रव्येष्वनितरेतरकारणाः ॥ ८.१.१० ॥
dravyeṣvanitaretarakāraṇāḥ || 8.1.10 ||
dravyeṣu—in substances; an-itara-itara-kāraṇāḥ—not causes, one of another.
10. In the case of Substances, (cognitions are) not causes of one another.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
[Full title: Exception to the above (i.e., 8.1.9). In the case of Substances, Cognition is not a cause of cognition]
It may be objected. As in the case of “possessing a bell,” cognition of substance (e.g., the cow possessing the bell) is dependent upon substance (e.g., the bell), so also in the case of (the serial cognitions of) “It is a pillar,” It is a jar,” etc., where the the cognition does not embrace another substance as a distinction, cognition of (the first) substance, (the pillar), is the cause (of the cognition of the second substance, jar), (and so on). Thus nowhere can there he cognition of substance in the first instance or at first hand.
[Read sūtra 8.1.10 above]
Accordingly he says.
“Cognitions” is the complement of the aphorism. Cognition of the jar, even though it takes place immediately after the cognition of the pillar, is yet not the effect of the cognition of the pillar, inasmuch as the pillar cannot properly be the distinction of, or that which serves to specify, by being contained in, the jar.—10.