Verse 3.8.58

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.8.58:

वनं वृक्षा इति यथा भेदाभेदव्यपाश्रयात् ।
अर्थात्मा भिद्यते भावे स बाह्याभ्यन्तरे क्रमः ॥ ५८ ॥

vanaṃ vṛkṣā iti yathā bhedābhedavyapāśrayāt |
arthātmā bhidyate bhāve sa bāhyābhyantare kramaḥ || 58 ||

58. Just as the essence of the same object differs according as one says: ‘forest’ or ‘trees’ on the basis of unity or difference, so is the case with Being, external and internal.

Commentary

Something is now going to be said about Being, external and internal, mentioned in the Mahābhāṣya.

[Read verse 58 above]

[The word bhāva has been used in the śāstra to express the meaning of a root, of primary suffixes like ghañ and of verbal suffixes. How do these notions, expressed by the same word, differ from one another? The bhāva which is the meaning of a root, is the internal one. It is characterised by unity and it cannot be differentiated by gender and number. The bhāva which is conveyed by suffixes like ghañ is the external one. It has the aspect of a thing. It can be differentiated by gender and number. The former has time as its attribute and not the latter. It can also be qualified by attributes of the accessory (agent) such as oneself and so on and of the result such as being for oneself and so on. Such is the difference between internal Being and external Being conveyed by the root and the suffix respectively. As to the Being which is conveyed by the verbal suffix in such words as śayyate, sthīyate it closely follows the meaning of the root and not of suffixes like ghañ. The Being which it conveys rests on itself (svātmāvasthaḥ) and is not connected with an accessory nor with the fact of being a mere thing. But the Being conveyed by a root is definitely a process and so the verbal suffix in śayyate is not added merely in the sense of the root (svārthika), just as the first case-ending added to a stem (prātipadika) is not considered to be merely svārthika. As it follows the meaning of the root, it has association with time. It is always associated with an agent, so that it is external. Thus external bhāva is of two kinds: (1) That which is conveyed by a verbal suffix (2) that which is conveyed by a primary suffix. The bhāva expressed by a suffix like tumun is neither a thing nor a process. Repetition is not possible in the case of bhāva conveyed by a primary suffix, because it is an attribute of a process and not of a thing.]

The author now points out that the gender and number of the word ‘bhāve’ in P. 3.3.18 are not to be taken seriously.