Vakyapadiya of Bhartrihari
by K. A. Subramania Iyer | 1965 | 391,768 words
The English translation of the Vakyapadiya by Bhartrihari including commentary extracts and notes. The Vakyapadiya is an ancient Sanskrit text dealing with the philosophy of language. Bhartrhari authored this book in three parts and propounds his theory of Sphotavada (sphota-vada) which understands language as consisting of bursts of sounds conveyi...
This book contains Sanskrit text which you should never take for granted as transcription mistakes are always possible. Always confer with the final source and/or manuscript.
Verse 3.3.52
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.3.52:
啶啶班う啷囙ざ啶膏啶啶曕う啷囙ざ啶� 啶掂ぞ 啶ぐ啶む 啶掂ぞ 啶ㄠた啶班啶ぃ啶 啷�
啶掂た啶ぐ啷嵿く啶ぎ啶ぞ啶掂 啶掂ぞ 啶掂啶さ啶灌ぞ啶班啶洁え啷佮さ啶班啶むい啷� 啷� 啷エ 啷�prade艣asyaikade艣a峁� v膩 parato v膩 nir奴pa峁嘺m |
viparyayam补产丑腻惫补峁� v膩 vyavah膩ro'nuvartate || 52 ||52. Verbal communication relates only to a part of an aspect of reality or to the determination by means of an external factor or to a reversal of reality or to an absence of it.
Commentary
It is now shown that all words positive or negative are in the same position.
[Read verse 52 above]
[No word expresses reality faithfully. Words like 鈥榩ast鈥� and 鈥榝uture鈥� also express things which do not exist and so do not express reality faithfully. Thus words expressive of positive and negative entities are all in the same position. No word can express the full reality. All words express only a part of it, because everything in this world is only a part or an aspect of the Ultimate Reality. In fact, no word can fully express even that part. A word like 驳丑补峁璦 cannot express even that part of reality fully. It just expresses a part of that part, namely, the universal in it. Anything else which that thing may possess requires another word to express it. If it is red in colour, the word rakta has to be used to express it. A thing can be expressed in words only through some such property as the universal which exists in it. A thing as such cannot be expressed at all. The One Brahman is presented by words as many on the basis of different limiting factors or they present what is within us as external to us. They are responsible for 惫颈辫补谤墨迟补办丑测腻迟颈. According to the 艢奴苍测补惫腻诲颈苍蝉, there is no external reality at all. The different forms which occur in our consciousness cannot have reality. They are mere dreams and it is these unreal forms which words present. In other words, they present what does not exist (补产丑腻惫补). As words can present only one of these four distortions of reality, as stated by (1) grammarians (2) 蝉补峁僺补谤驳补诲补谤艣补苍补 (3) 痴颈箩帽腻苍补惫腻诲颈苍蝉 (4) 艢奴苍测补惫腻诲颈苍蝉, there cannot be an eternal relation between words and the actual reality.]