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 3.7.53
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.7.53:
आभासोपगमो व्यक्तिः सोढत्वमिति कर्मणः ।
विशेषाः प्राप्यमाणस्य क्रियासिद्धौ व्यवस्थिताः ॥ ५३ ॥ābhāsopagamo vyaktiḥ soḍhatvamiti karmaṇaḥ |
viśeṣāḥ prāpyamāṇasya kriyāsiddhau vyavasthitāḥ || 53 ||53. Being in the right place (ābhāsopagama [ābhāsopagamaḥ]), being illuminated (vyakti [vyaktiḥ]) and having natural fitness (soḍhatva) these are the properties of a prāpya object connecting it with the accomplishment of an action.
Commentary
It is now stated how a ‘prāpya’ object becomes the ‘means’ of an action (sādhana) if the action has no effect on it.
[Read verse 53 above]
Remark. The word ‘soḍhatva’ occurs in Vāk. I, 82 also. There it means: well-fixed in the mind.
[If the action has no effect on the prāpya object, how can it be considered to be a means (sādhana) of the action? The answer is, that it can be connected with action in one of three ways. Taking an action like seeing, an object can be helpful (1) by being in the right place, (2) by being illuminated by a light when vision is obstructed by some such thing as fog, (3) by having natural fitness to be seen. Unless a thing is in the right place, it cannot be seen. Light is a well-known condition for seeing something. Lastly, only visible things can be seen and not invisible things like ghosts. But these are causal factors of the action of seeing and not its effects. Such factors exist for other actions also and through them a prāpya type of object becomes the ‘means’ (sādhana) of an action.]
The author now introduces the subject of karma-kartā (object-subject).