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 2.234
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.234:
अनिबद्धं निमित्तेषु निरुपाख्यं फलं यथा ।
तथा विद्याऽप्यनाक्येया शास्त्रेपायेव लक्ष्यते ॥ २३४ ॥anibaddhaṃ nimitteṣu nirupākhyaṃ phalaṃ yathā |
tathā vidyā'pyanākyeyā śāstrepāyeva lakṣyate || 234 ||234. Just as the effect is not related to the cause in a definite manner and, is therefore, indescribable, in the same way, knowledge, even though unconnected with any special means (anākhyeyā) is still thought of as coming from the śāstra.
Commentary
But how can vidyā come through avidyā?
[Read verse 234 above]
[The fact is that knowledge does not really come from avidyā, that is, from the śāstra. Looking upon vidyā as an effect, it is like all other effects. No effect is related to its cause in a definite form. But it comes out of it in a definite manner and so seems to be wonderful. Adbhutena rūpeṇa upajāyate, says Puṇyarāja. In the same way, the understanding of the word and the sentence as unity is vidyā and their division into stem and suffix is avidyā. Their understanding as a unity takes place when avidyā in the form of division disappears. It disappears really because of the rise of awakening, but as awakening takes place after the study of śāstra which stands for avidyā, one thinks that vidyā comes from the study of śāstra.
The Vṛtti also describes this rise of vidyā from avidyā as something wonderful: Tathā vidyā.... kuto'pyadbhutayā vṛttyā prādur bhavati. Puṇyarāja’s adbhutena rūpeṇa is an echo of the Vṛttis—adbhutayā vṛttyā. In fact, the expression adbhutā Vṛttiḥ occurs already in the kārikas. Once in III. Sambandha—81 and again in III. Kā. 17. In all these occurrences, there is a similarity of context. The expression is used in connection with the appearance of the effect from the cause, with the appearance of many from the one and with the realisation of unity from plurality. Here, emphasising the wonderful character of this process of vidyā arising out of avidyā, the Vṛtti concludes as follows—tasmād anyatrābhyāsaḥ kriyate, nāntarīyakatayānyad eva prādur bhavatīti=one studies one thing, namely, the Śāstra, that is, avidyā and what results from it is the opposite of it, namely, vidyā. That is why it is a wonderful process.]