Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary
by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165
The Vaisheshika-sutra 9.2.8, 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 8 (‘cognition accompanying dreaming, how produced’) contained in Chapter 2—(? Inferential cognition)—of Book IX (of ordinary and transcendental cognition...).
Sūtra 9.2.8 (Cognition accompanying dreaming, how produced)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 9.2.8:
स्वप्नान्तिकम् ॥ ९.२.८ ॥
svapnāntikam || 9.2.8 ||
svapna-antikaṃ—that which intervenes in, or lies near to, or accompanies, dream.
8. (So is) consciousness accompanying dreams.
Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:
(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)
It may be objected The cognition which springs up in the midst of a dream, in the form of recollection of the very same object which is experienced in somnial cognition, does not possess the nature of dreaming inasmuch as dreaming takes the form of perceptual experience. From what cause, then, does it arise?
[Read sūtra 9.2.8 above]
The word ‘so’ comes in from the preceding aphorism. The meaning, therefore, is that as dreaming, so also consciousness accompanying dreaming arises from a particular conjunction between the soul and the mind and also from impression or retention. The difference between the two cases extends only thus^far that somnial cognition results from impression or retention produced by former experience, while consciousness accompanying dreaming results from impression or retention produced by experience arising at the very time (of dreaming.) It has been accordingly stated by Professor Parśastadeva, “Somnial cognition is merely recollection, inasmuch as it results from looking back upon past cognitions.” The writer of the vṛtti also says, “Somnial cognition, its function being the illumination of experienced objects, is not a different thing from recollection.”
Some teach that ‘consciousness accompanying dreaming’ is cognition amounting to certitude, in the midst of dreams, as, for example, “I am in a state of lying on the bed,” etc.—8.