Verse 3.5.3

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.5.3:

सर्वस्यैव प्रधानस्य न विना भेदहेतुना ।
प्रकर्षो विद्यते नापि शब्दस्योपैति वाच्यताम् ॥ ३ ॥

sarvasyaiva pradhānasya na vinā bhedahetunā |
prakarṣo vidyate nāpi śabdasyopaiti vācyatām || 3 ||

3. Without a distinguishing quality, that which is (presented as) the main thing cannot admit of degree nor come within the range of words.

Commentary

It is now stated that just as difference in degree in a thing cannot exist except through a quality, in the same way, when a word presents an attribute as apart from the thing in which it exists, as something independent, difference in degree in it can be expressed only through another quality.

[Read verse 3 above]

[That quality through which it comes within the range of words is the very one through which difference of degree is also expressed. The universal becomes the cause of something being expressed by words, but not of difference of degree in it, because it exists everywhere in the same degree. It does not admit of difference in degree. It exists from the very time when a thing comes into existence. So some other quality co-existing in a thing with the universal, becomes the cause of difference of degree in it. Similarly, when a word presents a quality as the main thing, difference in degree in it can be expressed only through another quality, as in ‘śuklataram rūpam’ where it is some such quality as ‘brightness’ (bhāsuratva), or purity (vaimalya) through which degree is expressed. If brightness is presented as something independent, that is, as a thing, it would require another quality to express degree in it, as in bhāsuratara. The idea has already been set forth in Vāk. 1.64.]

It is now declared that ‘brightness’ is actually conveyed by the word ‘śukla’.