Transcendental Nectar of Sadhu-Sanga

All Glory to Sri Sri Guru Gauranga

Dandavat Pranams

Continuing with the overview of the Vaisesika philosophy, Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaj discusses the remaining 5 of the 7 categories of reality.

• Action (karma) is viewed in the Vaisesika school as physical movement.  Whereas quality is the static character of things, such as gravity or inertia, action is their dynamic character.
• Generality (samanya) is the essence of the common characteristics that unite different entities into one class–men, horses, puppies, etc.  Also translated as universality, it is similar to the Grecian concept of eternal forms.
• Uniqueness (visesa) is the opposite of generality, the characteristics of any given thing which distinguishes it from everything else.  Everything in the world is accompanied by uniqueness in the sense that we can point out “that” chair, “that” insect, etc.
• Inherence (samavaya) is a permanent relation between two entities, one of which inheres in the other.  Quality or action is inherent to a substance, but the substance is not inherent to the quality or action; there is color in cloth, but no cloth in color.
• Nonexistence (abhava) is negative in contrast to the first six categories, which are positive.  Providing an interesting and useful contrast with the logical positivism of modern-day philosophy, the Vaisesika school postulates two kinds of non-existence with several subcategories which are discussed in more detail in the full text.

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Servant of Servants.