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...
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Verse 3.7.152
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.7.152:
इदमत्रेति भावानामभावान्न प्रकल्पते ।
व्यपदेशस्तमाकाशनिमित्तं संप्रचक्षते ॥ १५२ ॥idamatreti bhāvānāmabhāvānna prakalpate |
vyapadeśastamākāśanimittaṃ saṃpracakṣate || 152 ||152. The expression: ‘this thing is here’ in regard to objects would not be possible on the basis of nonexistence. Therefore, it has been declared to be based on ākāśa.
Commentary
Some question the very existence of ākāśa and so the proof of its existence, known in the world, is now being given.
[Read verse 152 above]
[The existence of ākāśa is based on the principle that, for the grammarians, what the word conveys is the object. There are expressions like, this: idam, nakṣatram atra tiṣṭhati = this star is here. The word atra ‘here’ must point to something and not to nothing. Whatever it points to is ākāśa. We use expressions after perceiving or cognising something. In verbal usage that which has been cognised is what exists. That is why even non-existence (abhāva) becomes a support in expressions like śatror abhāve sukham= ‘in the absence of the enemy, there is happiness.’]
While ākāśa is the support of all finished (siddha) things, it is now declared that Time is the support of all unfinished things or processes (sādhya).