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APPENDIX II
CONCEPTION OF IŚVARA IN THE EARLY NYAYA-.
VAIŠEŞIKA SCHOOL
Does Kanāda believe in the existence of Isvara (God)?
There is no clear mention of Isvara in the Vaiseșikasūtras' of Kanāda?. Hence the author of Yuktidīpikā, a commentary on the Sānkhyakārikā, explicitly states that according to Kanāda there is no īśvara (God)'. And Garbe, a well known modern scholar of Indian philosophy, maintains that the Vaiseșikasūtra originally did not accept the existence of God'. But keeping in view the important place accorded to God in the later Nyāya-Vaiseșika school, the commentators wrongly try to find out in the Vaiseșikasūtra some implied acceptance of the existence of God. Take the following two sūtras : yato'bhyudayanihśreyasasiddhiḥ sa dharmaḥ / tadvacanād āmnāyasya prāmānyam | V.S. 1.1.2-3. The straight and clear meaning of these two sūtras is : ‘That by which one attains prosperity and beatitude is Dharma. Because the Vedas deal with it (=Dharma), they are to be regarded as pramāņa (authority or valid)'. But the commentators explain the word 'tadvacanāt' as meaning 'because the Vedas are the Word of Maheśvara". But this interpretation seems un warranted and farfetched. In this connection Prof. S. N. Dasgupta observes : "The sūtra 'tadvacanād āmnāyasya prāmānyam (I.1.3.)' has been explained by Upaskāra as meaning 'The Veda being the Word of Isvara (God) must be regarded as valid, but since there is no mention of 'Isvara'anywhere in the text this is simply reading the later Nyāya ideas into the Vaiseșika". There is another sūtra, viz, 'sañjñākarma tv asmadvisistānām lingam' (2.1.18) where the commentators wrongly find the implied reference to Isvara (=God). They explain the term 'asmadvisistānām' as meaning Maheśvarasya'. According to Upaskāra the meaning of the sūtra is : ‘Name and effect are the mark of the existence of Isvara
