Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c11.s17.5

c11.s17.5

Pt. Shukla argued for *ātman* as a body substance according to the tenets of Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika systems. The individual self carries nine *viśeṣa guṇas* (special qualities), which are *jñāna*, *icchā*, *dveṣa*, *prayatna*, *dharma*, *adharma*, *bhāvanā*, *sukha* and *duḥkha* and five *sāmanya guṇas* (general qualities), i.e. *saṁkhyā*, *parimāṇa*, *pṛthaktva*, *saṁyoga* and *vibhāga*. These fourteen qualities exist in the individual self and it can be accepted to be an indivisible part of the body. Thus the individual self is not a separate substance, as the body and the mind (*manas*) joined together would serve all the purposes of the existence of a human being. The combination of body with mind can be accepted as the individual self, as all the *viśeṣa guṇas* of individual self — *buddhi*, *sukha*, *duḥkha*, *icchā*, *dveṣa* and *prayatna* — will exist in the body and remaining other *dharma*, *adharma*, *bhāvanā* will remain only in the *manas*. Through this bifurcation of the qualities, Pt. Shukla revised the concept of *viśeṣa guṇas* and redefined some of them as *sāmānya guṇas*. He located these *sāmānya guṇas* in the body. The distribution of *sāmānya* and *viśeṣa guṇas* in the body and mind respectively satisfies all the requirements of an individual self, therefore the need to consider the self as a separate entity from the body and the mind is nullified, and there is no need to accept the self as the ninth substance.