ok with the remarks that those injunctions
(of Vedic deeds) which are performed for ordinary human motives
bestow prosperity even though their efficacy is not known to us
through our ordinary experience, and in this matter the Veda must
be regarded as the authority which dictates those acts [Footnote ref 3].
The fact that the Vais'e@sika begins with a promise to describe dharma
and after describing the nature of substances, qualities and actions
and also the _ad@r@s@ta_ (unknown virtue) due to dharma (merit
accruing from the performance of Vedic deeds) by which many
of our unexplained experiences may be explained, ends his book
by saying that those Vedic works which are not seen to produce
any direct effect, will produce prosperity through adrsta, shows
that Ka@nada's method of explaining dharma has been by showing
that physical phenomena involving substances, qualities, and
actions can only be explained up to a certain extent while a
good number cannot be explained at all except on the assumption
of ad@r@s@ta (unseen virtue) produced by dharma. The

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[Footnote 1: S'vetas'vatara I.i.2]

[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 combin