Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

Pleasure and Pain, again, are eternal, with health and disease, their causes and indications. This is so because of the chain of human beings one after another being endless or without beginning. This is another consideration why the Science of Life should be regarded eternal. The very existence of pleasure and health, and of pain and disease, and, therefore, of the causes (including the methods of alleviation) of health and disease, being eternal, the topic of this Science, its knowledge, and its knowers, cannot but be eternal.

The second consideration upon which is founded the eternity of this Science is furnished by “ its indicating the facts which arise from the very Nature (of a living creature.)” It has been already pointed out that pleasure and pain, with health and disease. and their causes and cures and indications or symptoms, form the topic, in brief, of this Science. This Science is indicated by Life being treated in it, as also pleasure and pain, &c. Hence, both Life and pleasure and pain being eternal, the Science also is eternal.

The third consideration is furnished by the eternal character of the actions of existent objects. The increase and diminution of such pairs of opposites as heavy and light; cold and heat, & c., which form the attributes of objects, or, rather, the laws that regulate that increase and diminution, form the topic of this Science. The attributes or objects being eternal, their laws also are eternal. Those laws affect human beings. Hence, this Science which treats of those laws land of how they affect human beings, is eternal.

CHA RAKA-SAMHITA.

p. 421

than by Intuition and Instruction. One class explains that origin by adopting these two {viz, Intuition and Instruction.) The indications of this Science arise from the very nature of living beings. They are not the handiwork of any particular person. This has been said in this Lesson (above), as also in the initial Lesson of this treatise. As the heat of fire, the fluidity of water, and the nature of (other) existent objects, are eternal, even so is eternity to be predicated of the Science of Life. This follows from what has been explained before : heavy things used or brought into con¬ tact with those that are heavy, lead to the enhancement of the heaviness of the latter and the diminution of all that are light. This being so, the conclusion follows.*23

In further explanation, for guarding against a misconception, it is stated that objects are both eternal and not eternal. Objects, as due to the mingling, in various proportions, of the primal elements, may not be eternal in their particular forms. But the elements which make them up are eternal. Thus, earth, water, light, air, and ether are eternal, although a jug or a jar, or a mango or a peach, may not be so. Then, again, a mango or a peach may be said to be eternal as representing species. A particular peach may dissolve or melt away, but another will grow from its seed. The eternity of objects being thus established, as also of their attributes, the eternity follows of the manner in which they act on the human body or mind. The manner of that opera¬ tion being the topic of this Science, it is evident that this Science also is eternal. — T.

* What is stated here is as follows : the eternity of the Science of Life follows from the fact that nobody can say it had its origin at such and such a time, and that it had no existence before. Generally, when people explain the origin of this Science, they refer it either to the Intuition of the Grandsire, Brahman, in whose mind, like other branches of knowledge, it springs up of itself in the beginning of a new cycle ; or, to Indra, the chief of the Celestials, who is said to have instructed the sage Bharadawja who brought it down from Heaven and communicated it to Punarvasu and others. This, it is said, is one opinion. In aphorism 22 above, several considerations have been urged for showing how this Science is not the handiwork of any one individual.

The Universe is eternal, having no beginning. Both human beings and the objects upon which they depend are eternal. The heat of fire, the fluidity of water, and the attributes of other objects, are eternal. Men using heavy articles find the property of heaviness enhanced and lightness diminished. Particular things are beneficial to health ; particular things are not so. Some objects cause maladies ; some cure maladies when they invade man. The Science of Life has for its topics considerations of health and disease. Those considera432

CHA RA KA -SA MHITA.

The Science of Life has eight limbs.

They are as follows : —