Verse 3.2.11

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.2.11:

सत्यमाकृतिसंहारे यदन्ते व्यवतिष्ठते ।
तन्नित्यं शब्दवाच्यं तच्छब्दतत्त्वं न भिद्यते ॥ ११ ॥

satyamākṛtisaṃhāre yadante vyavatiṣṭhate |
tannityaṃ śabdavācyaṃ tacchabdatattvaṃ na bhidyate || 11 ||

11. That is real which persists till the end when all the forms disappear. It is eternal, it is expressed by the word and it is not different from the ultimate word-principle.

Commentary

The author now states how we know that the forms are unreal and what is different from them is real.

[Read verse 11 above]

[It is stated in the M. Bhā: “That is also eternal which does not lose its identity” (Tad api hi nityaṃ yasmiṃstattvam na vihanyate (M. Bhā on Vā I, paspaśāhnika). The forms of the different ornaments vary and are impermanent, but the gold persists in all of them. Similarly, Brahman is eternal and real. The eternality of the universal and other things is only relative. Compared to the different individual cows, cow-ness is eternal. Compared to cow-ness, horse-ness etc., earthness (pṛthivītva) is eternal. Compared to that, the fact of being just a thing is eternal, an idea which can be conveyed by the pronoun ‘tat’. Eut, right through these more and more comprehensive and yet only relatively permanent things persists consciousness and, therefore, that is the real truth. And this consciousness is nothing more than paśyantī or parā vāk, or śabdabrahman. Brahman is not different from śabda. Brahman is the vācya of all words which are its vācakas. Vācaka and vācya are not different from each other. Prom the way Helarāja explains the Kārikā, his text probably was: tacchabdatattvānna bhidyate.]

The author now shows how the Reality is absolutely different from all appearances.