Verse 2.66

Sanskrit text and transliteration:

प्रतिपद्य पदार्थं हि विरोधात्तद्विरोधिनः ।
पश्चादभावं जानाति वध्यघातकवत्पदात् ॥ ६६ ॥

pratipadya padārthaṃ hi virodhāttadvirodhinaḥ |
paścādabhāvaṃ jānāti vadhyaghātakavatpadāt || 66 ||

English translation of verse 2.66:

After knowing the word-sense from the word, a person, indeed, later on knows the absence of the opposite, because of their mutual opposition, as in the case of the destroyed and the destroyer.

Notes:

From the presence of rats in a particular place a person infers the absence of their enemy, viz., the cat, because they are related as the destroyed and the destroyer. In the same way, after grasping the meaning of the words “real”, etc., a person presumes the absence of unreality, etc., in Brahman. Since reality and unreality are related as contradictories, Brahman cannot be both real and unreal at the same time. Since it is known through the given word that Brahman is real, one. can postulate the absence of unreality in Brahman. Just as the stoutness of a person who is known to fast by day cannot be accounted for unless we suppose that he eats at night, so also the reality of Brahman cannot be accounted for unless we suppose the absence of unreality in it. That Brahman is not unreal, etc., is not known through śabda, but only through postulation (arthāpatti).