VAIŚEṢIKA. The Vaiśeṣika school of Indian philosophy, founded by Kaṇāda (sixth century BCE?), has concentrated mostly on issues and themes of ontology and has closely cooperated with the Nyāya, its sister philosophical school, on matters of epistemology. Like many other schools of Indian philosophy, it upholds that all living beings, human or nonhuman, have souls that are different from the body, eternal, and ubiquitous; that the supreme goal of life is liberation from the bondage of karman and the cycle of birth and rebirth; and that the attainment of liberation is the only means of ensuring freedom from all suffering.

According to Vaiśeṣika teaching, the soul is a kind of substance that is conceived as the substratum of quality particulars (guṇas) and motion. Both quality particulars...