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 3.3.78
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.3.78:
अपदेऽर्थे पदन्यासः कारणस्य न विद्यते ।
अथ च प्रागसद्भावः कारणे सति दृश्यते ॥ ७८ ॥apade'rthe padanyāsaḥ kāraṇasya na vidyate |
atha ca prāgasadbhāvaḥ kāraṇe sati dṛśyate || 78 ||78. There is no such thing as the cause working towards something which has not even a word to express it. Even when the cause is present, there is the absence of the effect (before it is born).
Commentary
The untenability of causality, already stated, is now repeated and vivartavāda, the final doctrine, is expounded.
[Read verse 78 above]
[As the effect does not exist before it comes into existence, it has no word to express it. The cause, therefore, cannot work towards it. A cause operates in relation to an effect which is fit to be born and which is something positive. So unless the effect exists already, the cause cannot work towards it. Causes do not work towards something which is nothing. That which does not exist cannot be an aim and if it already exists, there is no need for a cause. If, by what is called the cause working towards the effect, it is the agent’s plan which is meant, that is also not possible. An insentient cause can work still less towards the effect. So what is called causality is nothing more than something appearing to come into existence only when something else is present.]