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 3.1.96
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.1.96:
यदा भेदान्परित्यज्य बुद्धयैक इव गृह्यते ।
व्यक्त्यात्मैव तदा तत्र बुद्धिरेका प्रवर्तते ॥ ९६ ॥yadā bhedānparityajya buddhayaika iva gṛhyate |
vyaktyātmaiva tadā tatra buddhirekā pravartate || 96 ||96. When, abandoning all distinctions, the essence of the individuals is perceived as one, then a single conception comes into existence.
Commentary
The author now states that, according to the Sankhya and the Advaita, the universal is not something over and above the individuals.
[Read verse 96 above]
[We trace back the whole universe to one cause if we find some common feature in everything. That which does not exist in any way cannot come to be. Thus cause and effect are really the same thing. Everything is like everything else and yet not so. As one and the same thing becomes many, the common point is the universal and the difference is the distinguishing feature. The most comprehensive common feature would be the great universal (mahāsāmānya) and the less comprehensive ones would be the intermediary universals (avāntarasāmānya). The factors that determine the parts are also transformations of the one. Everything is a transformation (parināma or viparta). Thus there is no absolute difference between cause and effect, dharma and dharmin, sāmānya and viśeṣa.]
As the sūtra teaching retention of one only of many identical forms has been declared to be impossible if the universal is the meaning of words, the author now brings it within the sphere of the idea of collection.