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 3.2.7
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.2.7:
न तत्त्वातत्त्वयोर्भेद इति वृद्धेभ्य आगमः ।
अतत्त्वमिति मन्यन्ते तत्त्वमेवाविचारितम् ॥ ७ ॥na tattvātattvayorbheda iti vṛddhebhya āgamaḥ |
atattvamiti manyante tattvamevāvicāritam || 7 ||7. The tradition which has come down from the ciders is that there is no difference between the real and the unreal. The real, when not properly understood, is called the unreal.
Commentary
[It might be said that, if, what is an attribute (dharma.) now may, in other circumstances, become the dharmin and thus become real and eternal, the principle that the form is unreal and the substance real would break down. To meet this objection, it is pointed out that in monism, the real and the unreal are not two totally different things, because, if they were, monism itself would be undermined. There is only one ultimate reality, which, due to nescience, appears in many forms to different experiencers. The one stands for knowledge and the many for nescience. When the one manifests itself as many, it is prapañca, which is wonderful as long as one does not probe too much into it.]
The author now states that it is Brahman which appears as differentiated.