Verse 3.7.1

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.7.1:

स्वाश्रये समवेतानां तद्वदेवाश्रयान्तरे ।
क्रियाणामभिनिष्पत्तौ सामर्थ्यं साधनं विदुः ॥ १ ॥

svāśraye samavetānāṃ tadvadevāśrayāntare |
kriyāṇāmabhiniṣpattau sāmarthyaṃ sādhanaṃ viduḥ || 1 ||

1. What is called ‘Means’ is the Power of a thing to accomplish actions, inherent in its own Substratum or in other substrata.

Commentary

[The power of a substance to bring about an action is what is called ‘means’ by the author of the Mahābhāṣya and others. In the M. Bhā on P. 3.2.115, it has been declared that what is called sādhana is a guṇa. It is power which is called guṇa, here, because it helps to distinguish a thing from other things (bhedaka). A power is dependent upon what has power and it also helps to distinguish its substratum from other things. So it is a guṇa as defined here in the guṇa-samuddeśa, verse 1. There is a M. Bhā passage in the context where a distinction is sought to be made between bhāva as conveyed by a primary suffix (kṛt) and bhāva as conveyed by a verbal suffix (tiṅ). It runs as follows: “dravyam kriyābhinirvṛttim prati sādhanabhāvam upaiti” (M. Bhā. II, p. 57. 1. 9) = ‘Substance (dravya) becomes the means of the accomplishment of action’. There is no contradiction between this statement and the present verse which declares ‘power’ to be the means. What is meant in the M.Bhā. passage is that substance is the means inasmuch as it is the substratum of power. A substance or a thing having power is the means. A power must always have a substratum. The same interpretation must be given to the M. Bhā. passage on P. 3.2.115 M. Bhā I, p. 120. 1.11:—yadi guṇasamudāyaḥ sādhanam sādhanam apy anumānagamyam. atha anyad guṇebhyaḥ sādhanam bhavati pratyakṣa-paroksatāyāḥ saṃbhavaḥ = ‘If what is called means is a collection of qualities (powers) then its existence is to be inferred. If it is something else, one can discuss whether it is pratyakṣa or parokṣa. What is called ‘power’ is invisible. In the M. Bhā. on P. 5.1.118 (upasargāc chandasi dhātvarthe) ‘dhātvartha’ is explained as ‘means’ (sādhana) or substance qualified by power (śaktiviśiṣṭam dravyam). When the M.Bhā. on P. 5.3.55 (Atiśāyane tamab iṣṭhanau) says:—‘sādhanam vai dravyam, na dravyasya prakarṣāpakarṣau staḥ’ = ‘it is substance which is the means and there cannot be greater or lesser degree in substance’, it is because power and what has power are taken as one. A given action inheres in the agent or the object. They are both ‘means’ (kāraka). Instrument (karaṇa) is a means of an action which does not inhere in itself, but in the agent or the object.]

How we know that power is the means and not substance is now stated.