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 3.7.52
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.7.52:
विशेषलाभः सर्वत्र विद्यते दर्शनादिभिः ।
केषांचित्तदभिव्यक्तिसिद्धिर्दृष्टिविषादिषु ॥ ५२ ॥viśeṣalābhaḥ sarvatra vidyate darśanādibhiḥ |
keṣāṃcittadabhivyaktisiddhirdṛṣṭiviṣādiṣu || 52 ||52. Actions like seeing make some difference everywhere, according to some. It is clearly manifested and proved in the case of snakes having poison in their vision.
Commentary
[Some do not admit a separate kind of object called ‘prāpya’, because they maintain that all actions like seeing do produce some effect or other on the object, whether that effect is perceptible or not. In some cases, the effect can be actually seen. For example, who do see things being burnt up when looked at by snakes having poison in their vision (dṛṣṭiviṣa). On that analogy we can conclude that other actions also have their effects. But this view is not endorsed by the author. We do not see the effect of actions everywhere. In the case of snakes, in addition to the fact that the sense of vision itself is a kind of fire, there is also poison in it and so it burns up the object. The burning is not due to the action of seeing. Therefore, a separate object (karma) called ‘prāpya’ must be recognised.]
It is now stated how a ‘prāpya’ object becomes the ‘means’ of an action (sādhana) if the action has no effect on it.