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 1.130
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.130:
अपि प्रयोक्तुरात्मानं शब्दमन्तरवस्थितम् ।
प्राहुर्महान्तमृषभं येन सायुज्यमिष्यते ॥ १३० ॥api prayokturātmānaṃ śabdamantaravasthitam |
prāhurmahāntamṛṣabhaṃ yena sāyujyamiṣyate || 130 ||130. It has been said that the Self, which is within the speaker is the word, the great Bull with whom one desires union.
Commentary
Here (in the Science of Grammar) the word is of two kinds: it is eternal or it is a product. The product is that which is found in worldly usage and it bears the reflection of the Self1 which is essentially the word. The eternal one is the source of all usage,2 it has all sequence suppressed, it resides within everybody, the source of all transformations, the substratum of all actions, the basis of pleasure and pain, unimpeded anywhere in regard to the production of effects (but) with its field of enjoyment restricted like a lamp covered with a jar, the limitless source of all corporeal objects, manifesting itself as all forms of knowledge and as all differentiations, imitating the states of sleep and wakefulness through cessation of activity and resumption of it respectively, endowed like rain and forest-fire with the powers of production and destruction respectively, the Lord of All, endowed with all powers, the great word—Bull; those who know the process of union with the word break the ego-sense and are united with it, in complete absence of differentiation.
It has been said3—
“He has four horns, three feet, two heads and seven hands. He, the great Bull, is tied in three places and roars. The great God has entered into human beings.”
Notes
1. Puruṣasya prabimbopagrāhī. Vṛṣabha comments—‘Yo'yaṃ rathyāpuruṣaḥ sa vāktattvavikāratvāt kāryaśabdasvabhāvaḥ, vikārāṇām prakṛtirūpānvayāt = The man in the street is of the nature of the transitory vzord, because he is a transformation of the word-principle and the source persists in the products.
2. Sarvavyavahārayoniḥ. According to Vṛṣabha, this means that it is the source of the distinction between the end and the means and of all the distinctions accepted in the different śāstras.
3. RV IV, 58.3.