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 3.7.107
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.7.107:
यथाहेः कुण्डलीभावो व्यग्राणां च समग्रता ।
तथैव जन्मरूपत्वं सतामेके प्रचक्षते ॥ १०७ ॥yathāheḥ kuṇḍalībhāvo vyagrāṇāṃ ca samagratā |
tathaiva janmarūpatvaṃ satāmeke pracakṣate || 107 ||107. Like the curling-up of a snake or the closing up of the fingers (into a fist) so does the fact of being born belong to existing things.
Commentary
It is now stated that, from the point of view of the grammarian also, it is the cause which becomes the effect.
[Read verse 107 above]
[What is called being born is nothing more than the same thing appearing in a different form, just as a snake becomes curled up or the fingers become closed in the shape of a fist. The curled-up snake is not different from the uncurled one nor the closed fingers different from the extended ones. The relation of cause and effect is nothing more than different states of the same thing. The same thing persists in all the states.]
It is now stated that even according to the view that the effect is different from the cause, the expression aṅkuro jāyate can be explained as an external reality.