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 3.3.60
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.3.60:
यथा भावमुपाश्रित्य तदभावोऽनुगम्यते ।
तथाभावमुपाश्रित्य तद्भावोऽप्यनुगम्यते ॥ ६० ॥yathā bhāvamupāśritya tadabhāvo'nugamyate |
tathābhāvamupāśritya tadbhāvo'pyanugamyate || 60 ||60. Just as the non-existence of a thing is cognised on the basis of its existence, similarly the existence of a thing is conceived on the basis of its non-existence.
Commentary
[Non-existence, unless related to some positive entity, cannot enter into usage. Positive entities also exist only during the middle stage, between previous non-existence and later destruction. Even eternal things are as good as nonexistent till they are manifested. Being thus mutually dependent, they are similar in their position in worldly usage. All this has been said on the assumption that positive and negative entities are two different things.]