Verse 3.14.25

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.25:

एवं जातिमति द्रव्ये प्रत्यासन्ने क्रियां प्रति ।
गुणधर्म गुणाविष्ट द्रव्यं भेदाय कल्पते ॥ २५ ॥

evaṃ jātimati dravye pratyāsanne kriyāṃ prati |
guṇadharma guṇāviṣṭa dravyaṃ bhedāya kalpate || 25 ||

25. Thus, substance characterised by the universal, being near to action, substance in which quality inheres has the attribute of quality and it serves to differentiate.

Commentary

[As the word tila conveys substance characterised by the universal, it is that which is directly connected with action. The word kṛṣṇa, on the other hand, conveys substance characterised by quality, which has a subordinate character, being only indirectly connected with action. It is, therefore, only a qualifier (viśeṣaṇa). In sentences like nīlotpalaṃ paśyati = ‘he sees the blue lotus’, svādu phalam āsvādayati = ‘he enjoys the sweet fruit’, surabhi kusumam ā jighrati = ‘he smells the fragrant flower’, colour etc. are not directly connected with action like seeing. It is the substance (lotus etc.), qualified by its attributes, conveyed by the words themselves as being the object (karma) of the action which one understands as being connected with the action. Even in a sentence like utpalasya rūpaṃ paśyati = ‘he sees the colour of the lotus’, it is through substance that the quality (colour) becomes connected with action, by means of saṃyuktasamavāya = conjunction-cum-inherence. That is, the eye is in conjunction with the lotus in which its colour inheres (samavāya). From the verbal point of view, in this sentence, the word rūpa presents colour as a thing, as a substance, something which can be referred to by a pronoun (idaṃ taditi sarvanāmapratyavamarśayogyam)]

It is now going to be said that even if a word does not convey substance through quality, it can become a qualifier.