Nyaya-Vaisheshika categories (Study)
by Diptimani Goswami | 2014 | 61,072 words
This page relates ‘Atma or Self’ of the study on the Nyaya-Vaisheshika categories with special reference to the Tarkasangraha by Annambhatta. Both Nyaya and Vaisesika are schools of ancient Indian Philosophy, and accepted in their system various padarthas or objects of valid knowledge. This study investigates how the Tarkasamgraha reflects these categories in the combined Nyayavaisesika school.
Ātmā or Self
The concept of ātmā is one of the most important concepts of Indian Philosophy. According to the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika, ātmā is a unique substance because of its guṇas like desire, aversion, volition, pleasure, pain and cognition. Naiyāyikas accepts the existence of the ātmā (self) through anumāna.[1] Ātmā is the inherent cause of cognitions. It is an object of mental perception. But according to Jayanta Bhaṭṭa, the self is also pratyakṣa. He states that the object of the conception of ‘I’ is perceived as self.[2]
Radhakrishnan states that:
“The soul exerts itself to gain or get rid of objects by means of the body, which is the seat of the senses, mind and sentiments. We cannot identify the body with either consciousness or the self which possesses it. Nor can we identify consciousness with the vital processes. Vitality is a name for a particular relation of the self to the body”.[3]
The self gives unity on the different kinds of apprehensions. The ear cannot see visions or eye cannot hear sounds and so on. As instruments, the senses imply an agent (self) to uses them. The selves are different in different bodies as their experiences are different. It is eternal and it can never be destroyed. The self is infinite or all-pervasive (vibhu) as it is unlimited by time and space.[4] The self is considered as different from the body, senses, manas and the stream of consciousness. The body or the sense is unconscious and unintelligent, therefore, it cannot be the self. There is no limited size of the self because if it has limitation, then it has parts and it becomes finite. But the self is partless and eternal, it has no beginning and no end. Each individual self is unique.[5] There are an infinite number of selves. If one self is present in all bodies, then when one feels pleasure or pain, all others will feel the same pleasure or pain. Though the self has knowledge or consciousness, this is not the essential nature of it.
Radhakrishnan states about self as:
“The self is the perceiver of all that brings about pain and pleasure (sarvasya draṣṭā), the experience of all pains and pleasures (bhoktā) and the knower of all things (sarvānubhāvī)”.[6]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
icchādveṣaprayatnasukhaduḥkhajñānāni ātmano liṅgam iti. Nyāyasūtra, 1.1.10
[2]:
ahampratyayagamyatvād ātmā pratyakṣaḥ. Nyāyamanjarī, p. 430
[3]:
Radhakrishnan, S., Indian Philosophy, Vol. II, p. 129
[4]:
Nyāyabhāṣya, 1.1.10
[5]:
Ibid., 3.1.14