Viseshika : What is it?

Viseshika is one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy. 

The six schools of Hindu philosophy are: (1) Sankhya, (2) Yoga, (3) Nyaya, (4) Viseshika, (5) Mimamsa and (6) Vedanta.

Sage Kanada Kashyapa founded Viseshika and wrote Viseshika Sutra.  Later it got blended with the Nyaya and transformed to Nyaya-Vaisesika. 

The Viseshika Sutra says: "Dharma is that from which results the accomplishment of exaltation -the Supreme Good.  The Supreme Good results from knowledge produced by a particular Dharma."

Viseshika accepts two means to knowledge: (1) Perception and (2) Inference based not on conjecture or authority but analogy.

Viseshika is a system of pluralistic realism which emphasizes that reality exists in difference.

Viseshika admits the reality of spiritual substances -the Soul and God.

Viseshika embraced God on the rationale that without the will of God the aggregation of atoms and the act of Karma alone would not have produced the orderly universe.

The Soul -The Self

The Soul is the Self -Atma.  It exists in the body-mind complex of every being. 

When Ego -Ahangkar, the I-factor co-existing with Self is burnt, what remains is the Soul.

Consciousness is not considered as the essence of the Self, or even an inseparable quality of the Self, because the Self does not possess consciousness during deep sleep.  

Consciousness is rather viewed as an adventitious attribute of the Self.

The Self, because it is intertwined with Ego, it possesses qualities such as Ichchha -affection and desire, Yatana -volition, and Jnana -cognition.

By means of Manas -mind, the Self knows not only external things, but also its own qualities.

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Viseshika advocated the concept of Atomism. 

Based on the concept of Atomism, Viseshika postulated that all physical objects are reducible to Param-aṇu or Parmanu -the Atom, which is Nitya -indestructible and eternal.

Atomism

Effect does not preexist to its cause.  It is a fresh creation resulted from its cause.

Effect is not contained in its cause, nor is it identical with the cause.

All material objects are aggregates of parts which are divisible into smaller parts.  The minutest particle which cannot be further divided is partless.

Creation is the combination of atoms in different proportions, and destruction is the dissolution of such combinations.

Atoms and their combinations are the cause of the material world.  They are and are co-eternal with the Soul.

Atoms are inactive in themselves.  They are activated by the unseen power of the merit -Dharma and demerit -Adharma, which resides inherently in the individual Self.

The unseen power is the cause of the material world, while atoms are its inherent cause.

Viseshika admits the spiritual substances: the Soul and God, and the Law of Karma; therefore, the theory of atomism of Viseshika is not materialistic.

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Everything that human beings experience as a whole is a function of atoms and their compositeness. 

Viseshika has categorized the objects of experience into seven categories:

1.      Dravya -Substance

All the compounded substances arise from simple substances.  They are transient, impermanent and subject to production and destruction.

Soul is eternal spiritual substance and it is all-pervading.  It is one at the same time innumerable. 

Time is the cause of perception of past, present and future. 

Space is the cause of perceptions of relative location.

2.      Guna -Quality

Quality cannot exist independently.  It is inherent in a substance, and depends for its existence on that substance.

A quality is a static and permanent feature of a substance

3.      Karma -Action

Actions are the cause of conjunction and disjunction.

While a quality is static and permanent, an action is dynamic and transient, and continues to be the cause of merit and demerit.

4.      Samanya -Generality

Samanya reside in substances, qualities and actions.  It denotes omnipresence and eternality. 

Samanya inheres in many individuals.  Though the individuals in whom Samanya inheres are subject to birth and death, production and destruction, it is eternal.

The universal and the particular qualities are objective realities.

5.      Vishesa -Particularity

Vishesa allows us to perceive things as different from one another.

Every individual is a particular, single, unique and different from all others.

6.      Samavaya -Inherence

Samavaya is one and eternal relationship subsisting between two things inseparably connected.

7.      Abhava -Non-Existence

There are four kinds of non-existence: antecedent non-existence; subsequent non-existence; mutual non-existence; and absolute non-existence.