On Upadhi

Author(s): Hidenori Kitagawa
Publisher: Hidenori Kitagawa

Page 5

On “ Upādhi”
101
ceptible (i.e. possesses perceptibility), but does not possess a manifested color (i.e. does not possess the nature of having a manifested color)? Thus the nature of having a manifested color fails to satisfy the first definition.
Then how does it satisfy the second definition? As is already pointed out, the difference between the first and the second definitions lies in the fact that in the latter the words "sādhya [-dharma]” and “sādhana [-dharma]" are modified by the phrases " yad-dharmavacchinna (limited by dharma X)” and “tad-dharmavacchinna (limited by the same dharma X).” So, I must first explain the meaning of the word “avacchinna (limited)." In order to undestand the meaning of the word “avacchinna," however, it is necessary to understand the meaning of the word “avacchedaka (limitor)." For to say, that F is limited by G is to say that F is limited by the avacchedaka G. Then what is the avacchedaka? Any dharma G that resides in the locus of dharma F may be treated as the avacchedaka of dharma F. Suppose there is a black pot; the black color is a dharma (property) of the pot and the pot is the locus of the black color. The pot may have many other dharmas than the black color, of course; of which, for convenience sake, let us pick up potness (ghatatva, the nature of being a pot). If one simply says “black color (nila-rūpa)," we don't know what sort of black color is meant by him. But if he says "the black color limited by [the avacchedaka] pot-ness (ghatatvavacchinna-nila-rupa)," we understand the black color that resides in the locus of pot-ness, i.e. the black color of a pot. Or more exactly, we understand the black color of any pot, as
6. According to the Naiyāyikas, we can perceive our own soul with our in
ternal organ. 7. To say that something possesses a manifested color is to say that it possesses the nature of having a manifested color. For more detail, see footnote (3) of my preceding article mentioned of at the beginning. 8. The Sanskrit word for "locus" is "adhikarana," which we may take as a synonim of "dharmin (possessor of dharma)" or "asraya (substratum)."