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INTRODUCTION
• Vaiśeṣika system was found by Kanada Rishi. It was named so because of the fact that
“Viśeṣa” was dealt elaborately. The founder of the philosophy as we are told was
surnamed Kanada because he led the life of an ascetic and he fed on grains of corn
gleaned from the field.
• The first systematic work of this philosophy is Vaiśeṣika-Sutra of Kanada. This work was
divided into ten adhyayas with each adhyaya containing two ahnikas or sections.
• Further from the two commentaries on Sankara’s Sankara Bhasya that Ravana ,King of
Ceylon, wrote a commentary on Vaiśeṣika system . Udayana’s Kiranavali and Sridhara’s
Nyaya kandals are two excellent commentaries on Prasastapadas work.
• Vallabhacharya’s Nyaya Lilavati is a valuable compendium of Vaiśeṣika philosophy.
Later works combine this system with Nyaya. Of these Sivaditya’s Sapta –padarthi,
Laugaski Bhaskara’s Tarka-kaumandi and Visvanatha’s Bhasaparicheda with its
commentary Siddhanta-muktavalli are important
• The Nyaya And Vaiśeṣika are allied systems of philosophy (Samanatantras).
• They have the same end in view namely liberation of the individual self.
• According to both ignorance is the root cause of suffering.
• Liberation which they call the absolute cessation is to be attained through a
right knowledge of reality. There is however some difference between two
systems on two fundamental points.
• Nyaya accepts four independent sources of knowledge :Perception,
inference Comparison and testimony.
• Vaiśeṣika recognises only two Perception and inference.
• Vaiseṣikas unlike Nyayikas recognize only seven padārthas and comprehend
all reals under them .
• The seven categories of reality are DRVYA, GUNA, KARMA, SAMANYA,
VISESA, SAMAVAYA, ABHAVA according to Vaiśeṣika.
• Padārtha literally means the object denoted by a word. So by Padārtha we
propose to mean all objects of all objects, denoted by words may be
broadly divided into two classes: BHAVA Or ABHAVA (Being and Non-
Being).
• Being stands for all that positive realities such as existent physical things
minds souls etc.
• Similarly Non-being stands for all negative facts like non-existence of things.
• There are six kinds of being or positive realities namely, SUBSTANCE,
QUALITY, ACTION, GENERALITY, PARTICULARITYAND INHERENCE.
• To this they later added a seventh Padārtha called abhava which stands for
all negative facts.
• The five elements each possess a unique quality, smell, taste, colour, touch, and sound,
respectively, which corresponds to one of the five physical senses, and each element is
said to constitute that sense.
• The other four substances are time (kala), space (dik), spirit (atman), and mind (manas, or
the internal organ). Time and space are, like ether, only one in number (eka),
eternal (nitya), and all-pervading (vibhu). They are imperceptible, eternal, intact
substances, partless and indivisible, but in ordinary discourse are spoken of as having
parts and divisions.
• Time is the cause of our perception of past, present and future, and also of the concepts
of “older” and “younger.” Space is the cause of our perceptions of the relative location
of things, such as “east” and “west,” “near” and “far,” “here” and “there.” Souls are
innumerable and each is an independent, all-pervading, eternal spiritual substance.
• Mind (manas) is the internal sense (antarindriya) and is considered atomic, but it does not
give rise to compound objects. Mind is also many, rather than a single substance, and
each is eternal and imperceptible.
SUBSTANCE OR DRAVYA
• Inherence (samavāya) is one and eternal relationship subsisting between two things
inseparably connected.
• It is defined by Kanāda as “the relationship between cause and effect,” and by
Prashastapāda as “the relationship subsisting among things that are inseparable, standing to
one another in the relation of the container and the contained, and being the basis of the
idea 'this is in that.'”
• It is the imperceptible, and inferred from the relation of two things which are inseparably
connected: The part and the whole; the quality and the substance; the action and the
substance; the particular and the universal; the particularity and the eternal substance.
NON-EXISTENCE OR ABHAVA
• Non-existence is the negative category of Vaiśeṣika System.
• It is of 2 kinds :
1. Samsargabhava : It means the absence of something in something else.
2. Anyonyabhava : It means the fact that one thing is not another thing.
• Anyonyabhava is the difference of one thing from another. When one thing is different
from another there is a mutual non-existence in each other. It has no beginning and
end. E.g. : A table is not a chair and A chair is not a table.
ATOMISM IN VAIŚEṢIKA
• Vaiśeṣika professes the doctrine of Asatkāryavāda, that the effect does not pre-exist
in its cause, but is a fresh creation. It is not contained in is cause, nor is it identical
with the cause.
• All material objects of the universe are composed of parts which are divisible into
smaller parts, which are further divisible into even smaller parts. The minutest
particle of matter which cannot be further divided is eternal and partless. This
particle is called an atom (paramanu).
• Atoms are said to be spherical or globular. Creation is the combination of atoms in
different proportions, and destruction is the dissolution of such combinations. These
combinations do not pre-exist in atoms nor form their essential nature.
• The atoms are of four kinds: Earth, water, fire, and air. Every atom is unique, and the
qualities of atoms determine the qualities of the combinations they form.
• Atoms are the cause of the material world and are co-eternal with the
souls.
• Atoms are inactive and motionless in themselves; motion is imparted to them
by the Unseen Power of the merit (dharma) and demerit (adharma) which
resides in the individual souls.
• The Unseen Power is the efficient cause of the material world, while atoms
are its inherent cause.
• The Vaiśeṣika school admits the reality of spiritual substances—the soul and
God—and also the Law of Karma; therefore, its atomism is not materialistic.
THE IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT VAIŚEṢIKA