Verse 3.8.20

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.8.20:

जातिमन्ये क्रियामाहुरनेकव्यक्तिवर्तिनीम् ।
असाध्या व्यक्तिरूपेण सा साध्येवोपलभ्यते ॥ २० ॥

jātimanye kriyāmāhuranekavyaktivartinīm |
asādhyā vyaktirūpeṇa sā sādhyevopalabhyate || 20 ||

20. Others have declared that which inheres in the many moments to be action. Being eternal, it is not sādhya = to be brought about, but in its individual aspect, it appears to be sādhya.

Commentary

So far action has been explained from the point of view of those who hold that a word denotes the particular or the substance (vyaktivādinaḥ).

Now it is going to be explained from the point of view of those who hold that the word denotes the universal.

[Read verse 20 above]

[Jātivādin is one who believes that all words denote the universal. A universal is something the existence of which is proved by a certain uniformity in our cognition. The idea of cooking persists even when the person who cooks and the thing cooked etc. vary. We must, therefore, admit that the universal called action inheres in the different kinds of actions. It is this universal which is denoted by the root. Like the sphoṭa, this universal can be manifested by moments which do not co-exist. What is conveyed here by the word ‘moment’ is the same as what is meant by vyakti = the particular. The universal called action is really eternal but it appears to be sādhya = something to be brought about and to have sequence, through its substratum, namely, individual actions, the different moments of an action. If action requires sādhana or accessory, it is the vyakti aspect of it that requires it and not the jāti aspect of it.]

Within the jātivāda, another way of looking at it is now stated.