bhaarati: The SaT-dars'ana-s: vais'eeSika |
| HOME ->SaT-dars'ana-s ->vais'eeSika |
The vais'eeSika dars'ana was founded by sage uluuka, also known as kaNaada (probably called so because he was an ascetic who lived on mere grains collected from agricultural fields - kaNa (grain), ad (to eat)). Hence it is also known as auluukya or kaaNaada dars'ana. kaNaada-s vais'eeSika suutra-s, which form the original text of this school, number 374 suutra-s spread over 10 adhyaaya-s (chapters), each divided into two aahnika-s (sections).
pras'astapaada (5th century AD) has written a commentary known as padaartha-dharma-saMgraha on the vais'eeSika suutra-s. Though known as a bhaaSya, it is not a suutra-by-suutra commentary on the original work. Rather it restates the principles contained in the original work and develops them considerably. nyaayakaMdalii of s'riidhara (991 AD), vyoomavatii of vyoomas'iva and kiraNaavalii of udayana (984 AD) are well known commentaries of pras'astapaada's work. vallabhaacaarya-s (11th Century AD) nyaayaliilaavatii and udayana's lakSaNaavalii are two other valuable works in this system.
In course of time, the vais'eeSika system got closely associated with the nyaaya system, so much so that the two haven treated as a single system by many. saptapadaarthii of s'ivaaditya (10th Century AD) and bhaaSaapariccheeda of vis'vanaatha (1650 AD) with his own commentary, sidhaaMtamuktaavalii, are noteworthy works of this kind.
The Seven padaartha-s: The vais'eeSika system recognizes seven padaartha-s or categories of realities. padaartha (pada (word), artha (meaning or denotation)) means what is denoted by a word, an object of knowledge. All such objects can be classified into bhaava (being, positive, existent realities) and abhaava, the negative facts (suu - 1.1.14). The seven padaartha-s are:
All these nine elements are eternal. The four elements namely Earth, Water, Energy and Air exist in the form of paramaaNu-s (atoms) even before creation. aakaas'a, kaala, dik and aatma are all-pervading. manas is aNu (atomic) in size. There are two kinds of aatma. jiivaatma-s are infinite in number but the paramaatma, also known as iis'vara or mahees'vara, the Supreme Soul, or God, is only one.
A guNa or quality cannot exist without a dravya, it is always dependent on dravya for its existence. Green cannot exist if there is no substance that has this quality of being green. A guNa is associated with a dravya, not with another guNa. A wall can be green but heavy cannot be green. There are 24 guNa-s. They include the five qualities of the five sense organs, parimaaNa (magnitude), saMyooga (conjunction), buddhi (cognition), sukha (pleasure), duHkha (pain), icchaa (desire), dvees'a (aversion), saMskaara (tendency), dharma (merit) and adharma (demerit). These cannot be divided any further.
karma is action, physical movement. There are 5 kinds of action including utkSeepaNa (throwing upward) and aakuMcana (contraction). They can be perceived by the senses of sight and touch. manas or mind also has movement but this cannot be perceived by external sense organs.
saamaanya is the essence in a class and can be called universal. These universals are nitya (eternal) and inhere in the individuals. gootva (cow-ness) is present in every cow and the concept of gootva itself does not vanish when a cow dies. In the same way, ghaTatva (pot-ness) is there in every ghaTa (pot) and is eternal.
This is the direct opposite of saamaanya. It is the unique individuality of eternal substances. One atom of Earth is distinct from another. There is something in these two atoms which makes them different from one another. This is vis'eeSa.
saMyooga (conjunction) and viyooga (disjunction) between two objects can be brought about at will. But these relationships are temporary - conjunction and disjunction can be reversed. samavaaya, perhaps a contribution of vais'eeSika philosophy, is an eternal (nitya) relationship that is independent of conjunction - it is ayutasiddha. samavaaya is exemplified by the relation by which a whole is in its parts (ex. a cloth in its threads), a quality like redness is in red objects, a movement in a moving object. The terms related by samavaaya are not reversible.
abhaava is the only negative type. When we look at the sky at night, we see the absence of the sun, even as we notice the presence of the stars and the moon. In this sense, non-existence is real. abhaava can be of two kinds. In saMsargaabhaava, absence of something in something else is noticed. For example, the jar is not found on the table. It can be further classified into three kinds. Non-existence of the house in the bricks before the house is built is praagabhaava. Non-existence of the pot in the broken pieces after the pot has been broken is pradhvaMsaabhaava. Absence of colour or shape in air is atyaMtaabhaava. In contrast to saMsargaabhaava, anyoonayaabhaava simply means that one thing is not another thing, a horse is not present in a buffalo.
God and the World: vais'eeSika dars'ana accepts God, iis'avra or mahees'vara, the creator. iis'vara is the Supreme Intelligent Being under whose will and guidance the world is created, sustained and destroyed.
Just study the mechanical design of the skeletons of different animals. It takes no less than a perfect mechanical engineer to design these skeletons, each one designed exactly as required to take the compressive, bending and torsional forces that are set up in the body of the animal in various postures and in motion. Just study any single organ of the human body - the eye or the ear, and you will notice how only somebody who is perfect in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, chemistry, physics, and all other branches of human knowledge could have come out with such a fantastic, complex, sophisticated, yet perfect system. All the intelligence in the world put together will not match the intelligence of this Supreme Being. It is impossible that this whole world came about merely by chance and trial and error experiments, even if over millions of years. If it was purely by trial and error, you find attempts by nature where animals have 97 eyes, eyes inside the nose, eyes below your foot, two eyes one below the other, or eyes bigger than your face. You never find any thing as stupid as these. We may say nature has done millions of experiments to perfect its creation but every one of these experiments has been extraordinarily brilliant, extremely well thought out, nearly perfect attempts. Where does all this intelligence come from? God is the sum total of all intelligence, the sum total of all knowledge.
The world is a system of physical matter and living beings which interact with one another. What guides the world is the moral order, by which life and destiny of all the individual souls are governed, the universal law.
Every one, including the illiterate and the uneducated, know that a stone thrown up falls down. The only extra thing that a scientist knows is a term called gravity. And some equations which will help him to compute velocity, acceleration, distance and time. But what is this gravity? How does it come about? How can a lump of matter simply sitting in one place, not doing anything, exert a force on some other body not even in contact with it, far far away from it? Why is it that we have attraction as well as repulsion, a polarization, in magnetism and electric charge and in inter-atomic forces but gravity is always only attraction and never repulsion? Nobody still understands any of these things very well. The difference between a novice and an expert is a few technical terms whose full meaning neither of them know. Water in a water-falls falls. Why? because of gravity? Why gravity? We do not know. Like poles repel and unlike poles attract. Why? We do not know. Men and women are attracted to each other. In each species, there is a natural attraction between the males and females. But only within the species! You may think you are the most beautiful woman on earth but, fortunately for you, the he buffalo only gets attracted to the she buffalo. Why? We do not know. Many things happen in this world and science has only been able to observe what is happening. Everybody observes, not just the self-proclaimed scientists. Science cannot really explain why things work the way they do. If something looks like an explanation, that is only one more level of observation and conceptualization, not really an explanation. We cannot explain the world. The world is governed by a universal, eternal law. The whole world, inert matter, plants, animals and every one of us, is governed by this cosmic law, invariably and inescapably. Let us be reasonable and humble and accept this.
Creation, sustenance and destruction go on in cycles. It is He who decides when a fresh cycle of creation should start.
We know that the physical world today is ever changing, moving, expanding and thus unstable. Before creation (think of the Big Bang), the world was an undifferentiated, homogeneous whole without parts, forms or names. Once the process of creation is kick-started, by Him, the world has to inevitably go through the full cycle of creation, sustenance and dissolution, for, only after that will it come back to its stable state. It can stay in the stable state for any length of time. When it is in such a stable, changeless (and hence time-less) state, why should it even get into this unstable state seen in this cycle of creation? Nothing in a state of rest moves unless acted upon by an external force. God is the label we give to this external force.
The first product of creation is brahma, the universal soul. He is in-filled by God with six blessed qualities such as jnyaana (knowledge), vairaagya (dispassion) and ais'varya (splendour). brahma is the chief architect of creation of the physical, manifest world. He creates individuals as per their adRSTa-s (unseen merits and demerits) by setting in motion the paramaaNu-s (atoms) to combine in various ways with one another.
The process of dissolution proceeds in reverse order. brahma gives up his body. mahees'vara wills dissolution and brings about pralaya (destruction). The whole world is reduced back to its primary state of the seven eternal padaartha-s.
Conclusion: Like the nyaaya system, the vais'eeSika dars'ana is a realistic philosophy. It combines pluralism with theism, material world of atoms with a spiritual outlook of life. Creation cannot be by chance. God created the world in a planned manner, as per the karma-s of the individual jiiva-s. for the proper realization of their ultimate perfection. God is the creator and moral governor of the world.
Many people think that all these ancient stuff from India is all rubbish. Some think that they have great value and blindly follow and advocate some of these ideas without a complete and deep understanding. Both of these are unscientific and irrational. It is not easy to understand something developed thousands of years ago in a different social setting and in a language we do not understand well. Words do not have the same meanings and connotations they had long long ago. We are looking at a whole body of knowledge as if it is monolithic without realizing that there would gradations and students learn in steps and stages, refining what they have already learnt and learning more as they go. One must therefore be very careful in interpreting and applying ancient systems of knowledge. Carefully done, however, a study of our ancient works can be an invaluable asset to all of us.
Snippets:Q: Who developed Atomic Theory? When? |