Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary

by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165

The Vaisheshika-sutra 9.2.12, 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 2 (‘the characteristic of vidya’) contained in Chapter 2—(? Inferential cognition)—of Book IX (of ordinary and transcendental cognition...).

Sūtra 9.2.12 (The characteristic of Vidyā)

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 9.2.12:

अदुष्टं विद्या ॥ ९.२.१२ ॥

aduṣṭaṃ vidyā || 9.2.12 ||

aduṣṭaṃ—not imperfect; Free from imperfection. vidyā—true knowledge, vidyā.

12. (Cognition) free from imperfection, is (called) Vidyā or scientific knowledge.

Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:

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

(He dclares what scientific cognition is:)

[Read sūtra 9.2.12 above]

The word “Cognition” comes in (from the preceding aphorism;. ‘Aduṣṭa’ means produced by organs of sense which are not inefficient or defective (in consequence of any derangement mentioned above). The meaning, therefore, is that vidyā is the experience of a thing in its proper place, or the experience of a thing in the same manner in which another thing having a common substratum with the former is experienced, or experience of a thing not having the mode which does not reside in the thing in question. It is of two kinds, immediate or sensuous, and mediate or inferential.—12.

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