Verse 1.52

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.52:

यथैकबुद्धिविषया मूर्तिराक्रियते पटे ।
मूर्त्यन्तरस्य त्रितयमेवं शब्देऽपि दृश्यते ॥ ५२ ॥

yathaikabuddhiviṣayā mūrtirākriyate paṭe |
mūrtyantarasya tritayamevaṃ śabde'pi dṛśyate || 52 ||

52. Just as the unified image of an original figure is drawn on cloth (in three stages), so does one see the three stages in the case of the word also.

Commentary

When a painter wishes to paint a figure having parts like that of a man, he first sees it gradually in a sequence, then as the object of a single cognition and then paints it on cloth or on a wall in a sequence. In the same way, the word in verbal usage is first perceived in a sequence, then cognised as a unity with the sequence suppressed. This partless and sequenceless mental form is superimposed, i.e., identified with the previous appearance having sequence and seeming to be separate. It again enters into verbal usage by displaying the characteristic of the sounds, namely, differentiation and sequence, produced by the movements of the articulatory organs. In the same way, the word goes again and again through three stages and does not fail to become both the illuminator and the illuminated.¹

Notes

1. It has been said in verse 44 that there are two kinds of words, of which one is the nimitta and the other, the expressive one. As to which is the nimitta and which the expressive one, is a question of point of view. Different points of View have been indicated in the Vṛtti on verse 44. Of the two kinds of word, one is a unity, with no differentiation and inner sequence and the other has differentiation and sequence. Either of the two can be looked upon as the nimitta, but only the word which is a unity and has no differentiation can be expressive.

The three stages mentioned in the verse and the Vṛtti are described as follows by Vṛṣabha—Prathamataḥ śravaṇe kramavān, tato'lpabhūtaḥ kramaḥ, tataḥ parapratipādanāya kramavān iti.