[Footnote 2:  I remember a verse quoted in an old commentary of the Kalapa Vyakara@na, in which it is said that the description of the six categories by Ka@nada in his Vais’e@sika sutras, after having proposed to describe the nature of dharma, is as irrelevant as to proceed towards the sea while intending to go to the mountain Himavat (Himalaya).

“Dnarma@m vyakhyatukamasya @sa@tpadarthopavar@nana@m Himavadgantukamasya sagaragamanopamam.”]

[Footnote 3:  The sutra “Tadvacanad amnayasya prama@nyam (I.i.3 and X.ii.9) has been explained by Upaskara as meaning “The Veda being the word of Is’vara (God) must be regarded as valid,” but since there is no mention of Is’vara anywhere in the text this is simply reading the later Nyaya ideas into the Vais’e@sika.  Sutra X.ii.8 is only a repetition of VI.ii.1.]

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description of the categories of substance is not irrelevant, but is the means of proving that our ordinary experience of these cannot explain many facts which are only to be explained on the supposition of ad@r@s@ta proceeding out of the performance of Vedic deeds.  In V.i. 15 the movement of needles towards magnets, in V. ii. 7 the circulation of water in plant bodies, V. ii. 13 and IV. ii. 7 the upward motion of fire, the side motion of air, the combining movement of atoms (by which all combinations have taken place), and the original movement of the mind are said to be due to ad@r@s@ta.  In V. ii. 17 the movement of the soul after death, its taking hold of other bodies, the assimilation of food and drink and other kinds of contact (the movement and development of the foetus as enumerated in Upaskara) are said to be due to ad@r@s@ta.  Salvation (moksa) is said to be produced by the annihilation of ad@r@s@ta leading to the annihilation of all contacts and non production of rebirths Vais’esika marks the distinction between the drsta (experienced) and the ad@r@s@ta.  All the categories that he describes are founded on drsta (experience) and those unexplained by known experience are due to ad@r@s@ta These are the acts on which depend all life-process of animals and plants, the continuation of atoms or the construction of the worlds, natural motion of fire and air, death and rebirth (VI. ii. 15) and even the physical phenomena by which our fortunes are affected in some way or other (V. ii. 2), in fact all with which we are vitally interested in philosophy.  Ka@nada’s philosophy gives only some facts of experience regarding substances, qualities and actions, leaving all the graver issues of metaphysics to ad@r@s@ta But what leads to ad@r@s@ta?  In answer to this, Ka@nada does not speak of good or bad or virtuous or sinful deeds, but of Vedic works, such as holy ablutions (snana), fasting, holy student life (brahmacarya), remaining at the house of the teacher (gurukulavasa), retired forest life (vanaprastha), sacrifice (yajna), gifts (dana), certain kinds of sacrificial sprinkling and rules of performing sacrificial works according to the prescribed time of the stars, the prescribed hymns (mantras) (VI. ii. 2).