Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna
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The translator’s English as printed (Avinash Chandra Kaviratna). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
* By “artha' is meant the objects of the senses, such as sound, smell, taste, touch and color. By 'cheshta' is meant the exertions we make, i. e., all our motions and acts. When indications are observable in them of changes for the worse, and when those changes are apparently causeless, i, e., not ascribable to the action of well-known and intelligible causes, the measure of Life is believed to be shortened. What is said here is that when the functions of the several organs approach towards stoppage, the period of Life is regarded as approaching its end. — T.
f ‘ Swabhava as used here, implies death. This is explained immediately below.
‘ Idam ’ is the reading of the vicious Bengal texts. Gangadhara correctly reads ‘ Ayam ’, meaning this one or some indefinite person ; it stands as the nominative of ‘ apatsyate.’ ‘ Tri-pancha-sapta-da^a-dwadafahat ’ is the correct reading. That death should be indicated by the word ‘ Swabhava ’ or Nature s consistent with the spirit of the speculations of Hindu philosophy. The llnwing oft-quoted verse is an authority for it :
Maranatu prakriiih faririnam, Vikritirjivitamuchyate budhaih.”
CHA RAKA-SA MHITA.
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The purpose of the Science of Life is protection of the health of the hale and alleviation of disease of one that is ailing.®1
The Science of Life is stated to be eternal, in consequence of its having no beginning.
Its indicating those facts which arise from the very Nature (of a living creature) and ;
the eternal character of the actions of existent objects (which it treats of.)*
It cannot be that there was not at any time a current of Life (or living creatures) ; or, a current of Intelligence (or intelligent beings), or, a perennial continuity of knowers of Life.
Pleasure and pain, again, are eternal, along with health and disease, their causes and indications, through union of one another (i. e., a chain of living creatures one coming after another).
This should be known as the topic of the Science of Life.
As regards what the indications are of the Science of Life, the answer is that they consist of the increase and diminution of such pairs of opposites as heavy and light, cold and hot, oily and dry, &c. through similarity and dissimilarity.
As has been said, through heavy things, when used or brought into contiguity, an increase results of all that is heavy, and a diminution of all that is light.
The same is the case with the other pairs of opposites (men¬ tioned).
This action (or nature) of existent objects is eternal.
The respective attributes also of such objects as earth and the rest are eternal.
Objects and their attributes are both eternal and not eternal.2®t
Implying that death is the normal disposition of embodied beings, life being called by the wise its abnormal condition. — T.
* These three considerations are fully explained in the text below. — T.
f These aphorisms are exceedingly terse and abstruse. What is said in them is as follows :
For the dignity of the Science of Life it is necessary to show that it is eter¬ nal. Three reasons are assigned for its eternity. The first is its having no beginning. Traditionally, it is supposed that Bharadwaja, who introduced it
p. 420
CH A RA RA-SA MHITA.
The Origin of the science of Life, occuring after a time when it was not, is not to be seen. Nor is that Origin explained otherwise in this world, got it from f ndra ; that Indra had got it from the twin Ac wins, the celestial physicians ; the twin Afwins had got it from the Grandsire Brahman. Brahman is, for all practical purposes, eternal, for whatever knowledge he has shines forth in him by inward light as soon as he awakes after sleep and re¬ creates the universe.
Discarding the traditional view, the Science of Life is said to be eternal on another ground. Nobody knows its beginning i. e. when or with whom it first began. It is so ancient that its origin is lost in the mists of antiquity. No starting point, in respect of either time or person, is known or can be conceived. Hence, its eternity may be presumed. It should be noted, however, that eterniny is predicated of this Science as regards its substance and not as regards any par¬ ticular treatise bearing on it.
The eternity of this Science is made out more particularly from the considera¬ tions beginning with “It Cannot be that there was not at any time &c _ ”
and ending with “ Pleasure and pain &c.” All Hindu systems of speculation on the subject of cosmogony treat the universe as eternal. Hence no time can be Conceived when there was no human being, and no Intelligence in human beings, and, therefore, no knower of the considerations of Life. Hence, that which is the Jneya of this Science, that also which is its Jnanam, and its Jnatri too, have never been wanting.
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