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 3.7.33
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.7.33:
प्रवृत्तिरेव प्रथमं क्वचिदप्यनपाश्रिता ।
शक्तिरेकाधिकरणे स्रोतोवदपकर्षति ॥ ३३ ॥pravṛttireva prathamaṃ kvacidapyanapāśritā |
śaktirekādhikaraṇe srotovadapakarṣati || 33 ||33. It is the creative force which, not residing anywhere in particular, brings together, like a stream, all the powers (required for producing an action) in a particular substratum.
Commentary
How some consider that action preexists power is now stated.
[Read verse 33 above]
Remark. In the second line of this verse, the reading should be ‘śaktīre’° not ‘śakire’°.
[According to some, what is called pravṛtti, a force leading to action, eternal, exists before everything. In that condition, it exists in nothing in particular. It is ‘anapāśritā’. It is this force which gives to different things in the world their power to do particular actions. In this sense, ‘pravṛtti’ or ‘action’ in a very general form is there before particular actions. This is the view of the old Mīmāṃsakas. The Sāṅkhyas think that what is called ‘pravṛtti’ is ‘rajoguṇa’ existing in everything in an eternal form and it is this which enables a thing to do particular actions.]
Other views on ‘means’ are now given.