A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v2.c34.355

Language: English

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Parispanda sometimes stands for motion molar as well as molecular, but more often for the subtile motion of atoms or molecules. The radical meaning of the term is whirling or rotary motion, a circling motion, but it may also include simple harmonic motion (*e. g.* vibration). All action, operation, work (क्रिया, व्यापार) is ultimately traced to this form of subtile motion lodged in the atoms or in the matter-stuff. The Vedānta, for example, speaks of a cosmic vibratory motion (सर्वलोक-परिस्पन्दनम्—Saṅkara). — A'kāsa, in the Vedānta, as we have seen, is the first stadium in the evolution of Matter, which gives off Vāyu, which gives off Tejas, and so on; but A'kāsa (Ether) itself passes through two stages before the emanation of the Sūkshmabhūta Vāyu :—(1) the motionless ubiquitous primordial matter-stuff (answering to the Sāṅkhya Bhútádi) called Puránam kham (पुराणं खं); and (2) a subtile integration, the pure unquintuplicated Sūkshmabhūta called Váyuram Kham ( वायुरं खं ) ( answering to the Sánkhya Tanmátra stage). It is this subtile Ákása, in its Tanmátric integration, *i. e.* in the derivative form, which is subject to an incessant Parispanda. The gaseous stage of matter (the Vedántic Váyu) is indeed matter in a state of Parispandic motion (वायोः परिस्पन्दात्मकत्वात् — Sankara).

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So also the bio-motor and sensori-motor principles apart from the directive Intelligence of the Self (प्राणस्य परिस्पन्दात्मकत्वादेव—यद् यत् स्थूलं सूक्ष्माञ्च तत्सर्वं मनःस्पन्दितमात्रम् — Sankara). The Sánkhya also conceives this Parispanda to characterise every process and phenomenon of cosmic evolution (व्यक्तं सक्रियं परिस्पन्दवत् --Váchaspati, Kaumudí). Bhútas, organisms, mental organs, as modes of Prakriti (considered apart from the Intelligence of Purusha) are all subject to this Parispanda (बुद्ध्यादयो देहं त्यजन्ते देहान्तरं उपाददते इति तेषां परिस्पन्दः । शरीरष्टथिव्यादीनां च परिस्पन्दः प्रसिद्ध एव ।—Váchaspati on Káriká 10). On the other hand, Prakriti as the Avyakta, the a-cosmic, the un-manifest ground, with resolution only of like to like (सदृशपरिणामम्), is devoid of all Parispandic motion (यद्यपि अव्यक्तस्यापि परिणामलक्षणा क्रिया, तथापि परिस्पन्दो नास्ति । ibid. on Káriká 10). The Nyáya-Vaiseshika finds Parispanda in all forms of matter, except A'kása which, in that system, is non-atomic and incapable of any change or activity ( निष्क्रय ). But all atoms from those of Váyu downwards, are in incessant motion. The world at bottom is an infinitude of continually whirling ( or vibratory ) particles (अनवरतपरिस्पन्दमानापरिमितपवनादिपरमाणवः—Raghunátha ; —compare also Udayana-Kusumáñjali, Stavaka V.—परमाणवः हि गतिशीलत्वात् पतनवत्प्रदेशाः पतन्तोति ।). All physical action consists in motion.

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The Nyáya-Vaiseshika rejects force, power, operation ( शक्ति ) except as modes of motion. Jayanta indeed states: we do not acknowledge any mysterious power or operation, which the senses do not and cannot report to us. But this denial of Force ( शक्ति ) and of unperceived and unperceivable operation ( अतीन्द्रियव्यापार ) is put forward as a philosophical ( epistemological and metaphysical ) proposition to justify the Nyáya analysis of the causal nexus into mere invariable and unconditional antecedence among phenomena without productive power or efficiency ( अन्यथासिद्धि शून्यस्य नियतपूर्ववर्त्तिता—Bháshá-Parichchheda). It is not of course intended to question the existence of Parispanda, which is of the nature of motion, and which, though subtile and therefore infra-sensible ( सूक्ष्म and अनुभूत रूप, not अतीन्द्रिय ), is the ultimate form of all physical activity. (परिस्पन्द एव भौतिको व्यापारः करोत्यर्थः । अनीन्द्रियस्तु व्यापारः नास्तीति ब्रूमहे । ......... तस्मात् कारकचक्रेण चलिता जन्यते फलम् । न पुनश्चलनादन्यो व्यापार-उपलभ्यते । Jayanta, Nyáya-Mañjarí, Áhnika I ). The effect (no less than the action) is, in all cases of material causation, the resultant of the combined motions of the various (material and efficient) causes involved (e. g. in the case of पाक-समुदित-देवदत्तादि सकलकारकनिकरपरिस्पन्द एव विशिष्टफलावच्छिन्नः पाक इत्युच्यते । ... अथ व्यापार एवैषः सर्वैः संभूय साध्यते । किं फलेनापराद्धं वः तद्धि संभूय साध्यताम् ।—Jayanta, Nyáya-mañjarí, Áhnika I ).