7rcTIX1xP

The Sixth Lesson: The Minor Systems.1225
from previous universes, and which energy has lain dormant throughout
the Night of Brahm. Like other systems, the principal aim is to teach the
Science of Deliverance from material life—an escape from Samsara, or the
Wheel of Rebirth, and an entrance into the state of Pure Being, which exists
“Behind the Veil.” This Deliverance, Kanada teaches, is to be gained only by
the perception of the real nature of the Soul, and the unreality of Matter;
and this perception depends upon the knowledge of the truth summed
up in the Vaisheshika doctrine of the Six Categories. Hence the importance
of these Six Categories of Kanada., which we shall now consider, and upon
which the distinctive character of this philosophy depends.
Kanada, based his philosophy upon the fundamental basis of the
existence of Six Categories and ultimate classes of phenomenal objects or
things, qualities or principles. These Six Categories are as follows:
i. Drava, or Substance, which is described as “the innermost cause of the
aggregated, collective effect”; the fundamental substratum of phenomena,
in which all properties and qualities inhere, and in which all action occurs.
This Drava, or Substance, is held to be nine-fold, viz.: (1) Earth; (2) Water; (3)
Light; (4) Air; (5) Ether; (6) Time; (7) Space; (8) Soul or Self (atman); (9) Mind
(manas).
ii. Guna, or Qualities (which must not be confounded with the Three
Gunas of Qualities, of the Sankhya Philosophy of Kapila, as stated in our
Third Lesson), which inhere in Drava, or Substance, and which give rise to
the differences in the latter. Kanada, in his system, enumerates seventeen
Gunas, or Qualities, as follows: (1) Colour; (2) Taste; (3) Odour; (4) Touch;
(5) Number; (6) Dimension; (7) Individuality; (8) Conjunction; (9) priority;
(10) Posteriority; (11) Understanding; (12) Pleasure; (13) Pain; (14) Desire;
(15) Aversion; (16) Volition; (17) Gravity. Later teachers of the Vaisheshika
added the following seven additional Gunas or Qualities: (18) Disjunction;
(19) Fluidity; (20) Viscidity; (21) Sound; (22) Merit; (23) Demerit; (24) Selfrestitution.
The teachers of the Vaisheshika hold firmly to the theory that
these Gunas or Qualities are inherent in and belong to the substance of