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...
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Verse 1.38
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.38:
अतीन्द्रियानसंवेद्यान् पश्यन्त्यार्षेण चक्षुषा ।
ये भावान् वचनं तेषां नानुमानेन बाध्यते ॥ ३८ ॥atīndriyānasaṃvedyān paśyantyārṣeṇa cakṣuṣā |
ye bhāvān vacanaṃ teṣāṃ nānumānena bādhyate || 38 ||38. The words of those who, with their divine vision, see things which are beyond the senses and unknowable, cannot be set aside by reasoning.
Commentary
The supreme inner Controller, the atoms which are the abode of the initial cause of creation, the unmanifested Word—Absolute which is the substratum of its powers, the gods,1 the residual forces2 generated by action, leading to particular results and not to others, in their maturity, the divine otherworldly body,3 and other such things known in all scholarly circles, imperceptible to the senses like colour and beyond the range of inner experience like happiness are undoubtedly perceived by the sages with their extraordinary eye. The words of these sages, dealing with matters beyond the range of inference, cannot be upset by reasoning which is so liable to err.4 People born blind cognise colour and as they had never seen colour before, it cannot be a case of inference.
Notes
1. Those who have a visible or concrete form and those who have not—Vṛ.
2. Anubandha-pariṇāma-śakṛivaikalyāni. The residual force of action is anubandha; when under favourable circumstances, the force yields the result of the action in question, it is pariṇāma; its inability to yield any other result is śaktivaikalya.
3. Sūkṣmamātivāhikaṃ śarīram. Vṛ. says that this refers to the intermediary body which the dead person acquires before he gets his next body. It is called intermediary, because it enables the person to cross over.
4. Vyabhicāribhir anumānaiḥ—This is a reference to the point already made in Kā. 32 and 34 that all reasoning is unreliable and liable to be upset by other reasoning.]