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 3.2.12
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.2.12:
न तदस्ति न तन्नास्ति न तदेकं न तत् पृथक् ।
न संसृष्टं विभक्तं वा विकृतं न च नान्यथा ॥ १२ ॥na tadasti na tannāsti na tadekaṃ na tat pṛthak |
na saṃsṛṣṭaṃ vibhaktaṃ vā vikṛtaṃ na ca nānyathā || 12 ||12. It does not exist nor does it not exist; it is not one nor is it different; it is not connected nor is it separated; it is not transformed nor is it not so.
Commentary
The author now shows how the Reality is absolutely different from all appearances.
[Read verse 12 above]
[The Reality is beyond all transformations. It cannot, therefore, be identical with them. It is beyond all assertions. One cannot say that it exists nor that it does not exist. Nor can one say that it is one, because the Reality which is free from all limiting factors is without any inner differentiation and, therefore, it does not appear as one. Nor does difference add any peculiarity to it, because there is nothing different from it and whatever is different from it has no reality. Nor can connection or separation be its limiting factor because that presupposes the existence of something different from it and that cannot be proved. It cannot undergo any real transformation, because one does not accept such a thing; one accepts appearance instead (vivarta). And yet the whole wonderful universe is manifested, so that there is some kind of change. Thus it is not possible to make any positive assertion about the Reality.]
The author now says that everything is identical with it.