An Outline of the Religious Literature of India c9.78

c9.78

The Vaiśeṣika is an atomistic realism. Nine classes of ultimate realities, dravyas, are recognized. There are first four classes of paramāṇus, i. e. minima, or atoms. Each paramāṇu is a changeless, eternal reality, yet invisible and without magnitude. The minima fall into four classes, according as they possess odour, flavour, light, or heat, which are regarded as characteristics of earth, water, air, and fire respectively. Two minima form a dyaṇuka, or binary atom, and a combination of three dyaṇukas forms a tryaṇuka, the smallest entity that possesses magnitude and may be termed a substance. The fifth ultimate reality, ākāśa, usually translated ‘ether’, is an indiscrete and all-pervading continuum, conceived as the medium necessary for the formation of substances from the unsubstantial minima. The sixth reality, kāla (lit. ‘time’) stands for the force which produces all activity, movement, and change, and thus gives the basis for the perception of time-differences. The seventh reality, dik (i. e. direction or position), acts so as to balance kāla, keeping things in position and preventing their dissolution amid the welter of change. The eighth reality is an infinite number of ātmans, the old Vedantic word for the self or soul. Each ātman is eternal, infinite, all-pervading. The ninth ultimate is manas, the organ through which the ātman comes into touch with the impressions of the senses. Like the paramāṇus, each manas is eternal and without magnitude. Like the Karma Mīmāṃsā and the Sāṅkhya, the original Vaiśeshika recognizes the Hindu gods but not the one God.