FREE online courses on Concepts of Ayurveda - Samavaya

 

The sixth category of Bhava Padarthas is Samvaya or co - inherence (i.e.) an inseperable union in which the parts of things are held together in their proper position, as quality - Gunas and the qualified - Guna. Charaka describes Samavaya as follows:-

 

"Samavaya ( co - existence) is difined as that inseperable relationship which exists between Prithvi relationship which exists between Prithvi etc., and their predicament. This relationship is eternal; for, wherever substance exists, the co - existant predicament is never absent,"

 

"That which is the substance of action and predicament and co-existent cause, is substance.,

 

"Predicament is co - existent and inactive (potential) cause."

 

The Deterministic Outlook of Nyaya Vaiseshika System

 

It will be seen from the foregoing that the Nyaya Vaiseshika system bears a striking resemblance to the Mechanistic and Deterministic outlook out of the Physics of the 18th and 19th centuries, in that,

 

The principles posited by this system centred generally on the concepts of mass, of motion and of forces. 

 

It believed that the paramanus represented a permanent concentration of matter at a point which cannot be further analysed (Anuthva or atomicity and Parimandalya).

These theory of matter was based on the Deterministic doctrine of causality or form of the mechanical laws. such as the assumption that " like cause produces like effects " and the principles of contiguity and antecedence according to which, things can act only on neighbouring things or through a chain of things in contact, the cause should be prior to the effect.

 

What ever differences there may be between the mechanistic determinism of the 18th and 19th centuries and the ancient Nyaya Vaiseshika System, such differences relate only to details, such as the views of the latter, that the irreducible elements in nature, known as 'Dravyas, are only nine instead of the 92 of the former; of these five atomic viz., Vayu, Tejas, Ap, Prithvi and Manas, while Akasa, Kala (Time), Dik (Space) and Atam are non - atomic or Vibhu. The principle of 'indeterminism' was sought to be explained by positing the influence of a 'soul possessing merit or Dharma,'

 

Another difference which is again a matter of details worthy of note here is the inclusion of Manas or Mind as a material factor in the category of ultimate substance, to explain the phenomenon of consciousness and life, as well as the Soul for the same purpose -- the former being atomic and the latter non - atomic. Over and above everything else, the Nyaya Vaiseshikha system laid the general basis of Physical - chemistry freely drew from this system, among others, to construct the Science of Life (Biological Science) or Ayurveda.