Sūtra 9.2.6 (Reminiscence, how produced)

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 9.2.6:

आत्मनः संयोगविशेषात् संस्काराच्च स्मृतिः ॥ ९.२.६ ॥

ātmanaḥ saṃyogaviśeṣāt saṃskārācca smṛtiḥ || 9.2.6 ||

ātma-manasoḥ—between the soul and the mind; saṃyoga-viśeṣat—from a particular conjunction; saṃskārāt—from impression or retention or latency; ca—and Smṛtiḥ, Reminiscence.

6. Reminiscence (results) from a particular conjunction between the Soul and the Mind and also from Impression or latency.

Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:

(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)

Inferential cognition having been explained, he now begins another topic.

[Read sūtra 9.2.6 above]

“Results”—This is the complement of the aphorism. ‘Saṃyoga-viśeṣaḥ’ means contact or contiguity such as reflection or meditation or inter-penetration, etc. From this as the non-combinative cause, in the soul as the combinative cause, ‘Smṛtiḥ,’ (reminiscence), a particular kind of cognition or knowledge, is produced, He states the efficient cause by ‘Saṃskārāt.’ By the word ‘ca’ he implies past, experience which too is operative here as the object recalled. Reminiscence or recollection imitates the correctness of the previous experience, such alone being the recollection of him who has mistaken a rope for a snake and has consequently fled from it. It does not, moreover, follow that reminiscence should take place at all times or continually, since it depends on the resuscitation of the mental impression. Accordingly it has been said by the revered Praśastadeva, “Reminiscence, caused by the inferential process (as in inferring fire from smoke there is recollection of the universal concomitance of fire and smoke), desire, re-production (or suggestion of one idea by another), and aversion, and having for its content the past, among objects seen, heard, and otherwise experienced, (results) from a particular conjunction between the soul and the mind, due to the observation of a suggestive mark, voluntary attempt at recollection, etc., and from impression or latency produced by intuitions constantly repeated and attended to with interest.”

The cognition of highly advanced sages, or their intellectual intuition has not been separately noticed by the author of the aphorisms. It is included within perception by Yogins or ascetics (See IX.ii.13 below). In the treatise, called the Padārtha-Pradeśa, an account of it has been given, which is as follows: “Prescient or inventive cognition which is. produced from conjunction between the soul and the mind, and also from a particular dharma, virtue or merit, independently of inferential marks, etc., in advanced sages, the promulgators of the Vedas, in respect of objects, supersensible, or past, present, and future, or in respect of dharma, etc., as preserved in books,—that is called sagely cognition.” This form of cognition at times arises in ordinary or wordly people also; as when a young maiden says, “My heart assures me my brother will depart to morrow.”—.