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 1.30
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.30:
啶ㄠぞ啶椸ぎ啶距う啷冟い啷� 啶оぐ啷嵿ぎ啶膏啶むぐ啷嵿啷囙ぃ 啶掂啶さ啶むた啶粪啶犩い啷� 啷�
啶嬥し啷�啶｀ぞ啶お啶� 啶啷嵿啷嵿啶距え啶� 啶むう啶啶ぞ啶椸ぎ啶啶班啶掂啶 啷� 啷┼ウ 啷�n膩gam膩d峁泃e dharmastarke峁嘺 vyavati峁ａ弓hate |
峁涐梗墨峁嚹乵api yajj帽膩na峁� tadapy膩gamap奴rvakam || 30 ||30. Dharma cannot be determined by reasoning alone, without the help of tradition. Even the knowledge of the Seers is due to their previous observance of the tradition.
Commentary
All thinkers, when they reach the extreme, have recourse to the own nature of things. The determination of the own nature of actions having invisible fruits can be made only with the help of tradition. How can one trust human reasoning in which the similarities and differences of things are never certain and which is, therefore, always doubtful? Even in the case of those individuals who have adopted a particular mode of intellectual and spiritual life and are known to have acquired qualities which reasoning cannot explain, it is said that, because of their adherence to the injunctions of the 膧驳补尘补 (Tradition), their souls are purified and a divine knowledge is manifested in them.1 To assume that such knowledge is natural to them would be to condemn all special effort2 as. fruitless and obstacles to such knowledge would also arise naturally.
Notes
1. Sage Kapila is usually given as the example of one, who possessed divine knowledge capable of seeing the past, the present and the future, the subtle (蝉奴办峁补), the distent (惫颈辫谤补办峁涐梗峁璦) and the hidden (vyavahita).
2. The effort made by persons to acquire the kind of knowledge that Kapila had is meant here, V峁�. says: yatna ity abhy膩s膩dika岣�.