Verse 3.7.68

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.7.68:

आधारत्वमिव प्राप्तास्ते पुनर्द्रव्यकर्मसु ।
कालादयो भिन्नकक्ष्यं यान्ति कर्मत्वमुत्तरम् ॥ ६८ ॥

ādhāratvamiva prāptāste punardravyakarmasu |
kālādayo bhinnakakṣyaṃ yānti karmatvamuttaram || 68 ||

68. Having become a kind of substratum for the substance—objects, time etc. later become objects having a different status (bhinnakakṣyam).

Commentary

It is now stated how time, etc. are only minor objects whereas an object in the form of a thing or substance (dravyakarma) would be the main object.

[Read verse 68 above]

[It has been said before that time, etc. are only external karmas and not internal (antaraṅga). They are secondary objects. They become a kind of substratum in which the main object or the agent resides. In kurūn svapiti = ‘he sleeps in the Kuru country,’ it is clear that the country is the place where he sleeps; in other words, it is a kind of ādhāra (substratum). In māsam odanaṃ pacati = ‘he cooks rice for a month’, where the main object also comes in the sentence, it is clear a month’ is a kind of ādhāra for the main object also. The point of the comparison may be that just as a place becomes connected with action through the agent or the object, in (he same way, time, etc. become objects through the main object. Action becomes connected with the main object first and then only with the secondary object. Therefore, the latter becomes an object only in the second stage. In cooking, for example, the time taken depends upon the nature of the main thing which is cooked. Thus time, etc. become connected with action through the main object. When both the ob- jects are mentioned in the same sentence, the suffixes ‘la.’, ‘kṛtya’, etc. express the object, and not time, etc. They are expressed by the second case-affix found in a separate word.]

What follows because of time, etc. coming within the range of all roots and because of their being objects having a different status is now stated.