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 3.3.73
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.3.73:
सामान्यं वा विशेषं वा यस्मादाहुर्विशेषवत् ।
शब्दास्तस्मादसत्येषु भेदेष्वेव व्यवस्थिताः ॥ ७३ ॥sāmānyaṃ vā viśeṣaṃ vā yasmādāhurviśeṣavat |
śabdāstasmādasatyeṣu bhedeṣveva vyavasthitāḥ || 73 ||73. Inasmuch as words express the universal or the particular as differentiated, they move about in the world of unreal differences.
Commentary
It is now stated that words move about in the world of unreal differentiation.
[Read verse 73 above]
[Words express the unreal which appears in our cognition and do not touch the undifferentiated reality but move about in the world of differentiation. Words express even universals as distinct from other universals. That is, even when they express universals which stand for unity, they are still associated with differentiation. Similarly, a viśeṣa (particularity) is different from other viśeṣas, as expressed by words.]
The author now says something about non-existence as understood by the Vaiśeṣikas.