Verse 3.7.9

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.7.9:

शक्तयः शक्तिंमन्तश्र सर्वे संसर्गवादिनाम् ।
भावास्तेष्वस्वशब्देषु साधनत्वं निरूप्यते ॥ ९ ॥

śaktayaḥ śaktiṃmantaśra sarve saṃsargavādinām |
bhāvāsteṣvasvaśabdeṣu sādhanatvaṃ nirūpyate || 9 ||

9. According to the Saṃsargavādins, all objects are powers and things having powers. The fact of their being the means is not conveyed by their own words.

Commentary

Thus the idea of ‘sādhana’ as a power distinct from the thing in which it resides has been explained. Now it is going to be explained as a power not distinct from the thing itself.

[Read verse 9 above]

Remark. The meaning of “teṣv asvaśabdeṣu sādhanatvam nirūpyate” is not clear. The translation is tentative.

[The Vaiśeṣikas maintain that due to the relation called ‘inherence’ (samavāya) things which are different from each other appear to be the same. For example, the whole and its parts. That is why they are called ‘saṃsargavādinaḥ’. They believe that things produce their effects through their own name helped by auxiliary factors. The thing itself would be the cause and the auxiliary factors their power in producing the effect. Or the thing itself may be looked upon as the power of the auxiliary factors in producing their effects.

What it all amounts to is that things themselves are powers of one another. There is no such thing as Power, apart from the things themselves, as the Mīmāṃsakas believe. This character of things, namely, that they can be powers of one another, cannot be conveyed by words like ‘apādana’. That can be conveyed only by the case-endings. In the sentence ghaṭam paśyati’, the second case-ending conveys the power of the jar, co-existent in it with bigness. It is then that ghaṭa becomes the means (sādhana). When a thing is conceived as helping something else, it is a power (śakti). When it is conceived as being helped by something else, it is śaktimat. And this śakti is not over and above the thing of which it is the śakti.]