Tharkasangraha-7- Visesha and samavaya

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Jai Srimannarayana!

 

Visesha- particularity

 

nithyadravaya vrtthayah, vyaavarthakaah viseshaah thu ananthaa eva

 

The particulars, viseshaah are infinite and reside in eternal

substances.

 

The eternal substances are the four atoms , the source of four elements, and the

five other substances.

 

The substances, akasa (space), kaala, (time), dhik, (directions), athmaa, (soul)

and manas ,(mind) are eternal. The other four elements, earth, water, fire,

wind, are eternal in their atomic state only. The visesha or the special

features of these substances are also eternal as the substances themselves are

eternal.

 

Samavaaya- Inherence

 

Samavaayasthu eka eva.

 

 

Samavaaya or inherence is one only, unlike visesha which is the differentiating

particularity which is infinite and innumerable because it differentiates one

entity from another of the same class as well as the one class of objects from

another class of objects, which are innumerable. It is said to exist in the

atoms of the four elements, earth, water, fire and wind because it is the atoms

that differentiate one element from the other.

 

 

Samavaaya is the inherence between substance and their gunas, action and acting,

which is an inseparable relation and hence it is one only.

Related may be different but relation, namely inherence is the same.

 

nithyasambandhah samavaayah. ayutha siddha vrtthih

 

Inherence is the eternal relation. It exists between inseparable pairs

of objects .

 

 

 

yayoh dhvayoh madhye ekam avinasyath aparaasritham eva avathishtathe

thou ayuthasiddhaou.

 

 

 

Two objects are said to be an inseparable pair when between them one of them

exists as long as the other lasts.

 

 

yathaa avayavaavayavinou guna guninou kriyaakriyavanthou jaathivyakthee

viSesha nithyadhravye cha ithi

 

 

 

Such as the parts and the whole , quality and the qualified, action and the

acting, class and the individuals in the class and particularity and the eternal

substances.

 

Let us understand samavaaya by examining each of the pair by turns.

 

 

 

avayava avayavinou- Like threads and the cloth. Threads form the part of the

cloth which can exist separately but the cloth cannot exist without the threads.

Hence the relation between the thread and the cloth is samavaaya, inherence.

 

 

gunaguninou- the quality and the substance it qualifies like a blue jar.

Blueness of the jar is in samavaya sambandha with the jar as the jar can exist

without the blue colour but not vice versa.

 

Kriyaa kriyaavanthou- a ball is thrown and as long as it is in motion

there is a samvaayasambandha between the ball and its motion. That is

as long as the kriya, action lasts, the kriyaavanatha, the ball is

connected with the motion in a samavaya sambandha, relation of

inherence.

 

 

Jathi and vyakthi- class or genus and the individual entity of the

class. Cowness is the jathi and cow is the vyakthi. Cowness is in

samavaaya sambandha with the cow as it exists as long as the cow does.

 

 

Visesha and nithyadravya- visesha, the particularity of the eternal

substances is in relation of inherence with the eternal substances as

the substances to which they inhere are themselves eternal. For instance the

difference between earth atom and water atom is that the earth atom possesses

smell which the other does not but it on the other hand has taste which the

earth atom does not have. This visesha is eternal and therefore the relation

between the visesha and the nithyadhravya is one of samvaaya.

 

 

Jai Srimannarayana!