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 3.8.32
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.8.32:
आवाभावौ घटादीनामस्पृशन्नपि पाणिना ।
कश्चिद्वेदाप्रकाशेऽपि प्रकाशे तत एव वा ॥ ३२ ॥āvābhāvau ghaṭādīnāmaspṛśannapi pāṇinā |
kaścidvedāprakāśe'pi prakāśe tata eva vā || 32 ||32. One does ascertain, in the dark as in the light, without touching with the hand, the existence or non-existence of objects like a jar.
Commentary
But one does ascertain the non-existence of a thing in the dark by means of the sense of touch. This is answered as follows:—
[Read verse 32 above]
[It is true that we seem to cognise non-existence when we see nothing in the dark and feel nothing with our hand. But that is not how it happens. When we feel with our hand in the dark and do not touch something, we are guided in doing so by our memory of what we have seen there in the light. Here also, it is through our perception of something positive that we ascertain non-existence.]
Birth and destruction are now explained differently.