Vakyapadiya 1.1

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In the classical Sanskrit tradition, Bhartrhari is called

a 'grammarian'. This can be a little confusing. For Bhartrhari is not

the kind of grammarian who formulates rules or builds theories of

language. Instead, he opens up an analytic investigation into our

living use of meaningful expression. In this sense, he is a

linguistic philosopher.

 

In Bhartrihari's treatise, the Vakyapadiya, the essential aim is not

the building up of linguistic theories and descriptions. In fact, it

is just the opposite. The aim is a reflective enquiry. It asks how

descriptions have been built, and from what basis they arise.

Accordingly, there is a reversal of direction, from building up to

asking down. The asking is directed back, towards an underlying

source from which our constructed speaking is expressed.

 

That source is called 'shabda-tattva' or the 'essence of the word'.

It is described in the opening stanza of the Vakyapadiya:

 

 

1.1

---

 

an-Adi-nidhanaM brahma shabda-tattvaM yad akSharam .

 

an(not)-Adi(beginning)-nidhanaM(stopping) brahma(all there is)

shabda(word)-tattvaM(essence) yad(that which) akSharam(changeless) .

 

The changeless essence of the word

is all there is. It has no start;

nor does it stop or come to end.

 

vivartate 'rtha-bhAvena prakriyA jagato yataH ..

 

vivartate(manifests) artha(aims, objects)-

bhAvena(through coming to be) prakriyA(the production, proceeding)

jagataH(of the changing world) yataH(from it) ..

 

It manifests transformed: through

aims and objects, as they come to be.

From it proceeds the changing world.

 

 

Here, Bhartrhari sets the terms of a traditional enquiry. He tells us

what the enquiry is looking for. It is looking for a common source of

speech, from where expression comes. And speech is here interpreted

in the most general sense -- to include not only the limited speaking

of human persons, but also all appearances that nature manifests

throughout the universe. All appearances that nature shows are here

considered as expressions of an underlying principle, which this

enquiry sets out to investigate. The Vakyapadiya thus starts out with

a basic question. From where do all these expressions come: not just

our personal expressions of human speech, but all nature's phenomena

as well?

 

This question is further discussed in the vritti commentary on stanza

1.1. The essential source of all expression (shabda-tattva) is

described as " quite beyond all means by which it is described "

( " sarva-parikalpA-'tIta " ). And a questioning is thereby raised as to

how its true reality may be discovered, beneath its manifested

descriptions that appear to be mixed with ignorance. To give some

idea of this line of thinking, a free translation from the vritti is

appended below. The translation is in blank verse, though most of the

vritti is in prose. For those who wish to see the original Sanskrit

and how it has been translated, the following file may be downloaded

from the net:

http://www.advaitin.net/Ananda/VakyapadiyaExcerpts.pdf

 

The stanzas quoted at the end (from some more ancient text) are of

particular interest. They provide us with a relatively simple account

of all manifestation as the speaking of a non-dual truth, whose

meaning must be understood by merging back into its plain, self-

evident reality.

 

Ananda

 

 

---------------

From 1.1 vritti

---------------

 

 

What's really there?

--------------------

 

What's really there is quite beyond

all means by which it is described.

It's entered into, all at once,

by going fully past all taking

things apart or joining them.

All powers are its instruments,

which are made manifest with it.

 

Its form appears to manifest

through the distinction of true knowing

from mistaken ignorance.

But in itself, just as it is,

there's no distinction to be found.

 

By our habitual exercise

of adding time-dependent differences

to seeing in itself,

and by imagining embodied

forms made up from different parts,

it gets associated with

the good and bad results of usage

and transaction in the world.

 

But in all states, it's always there:

as that which never does depend

on anything that starts or stops.

That's how what's called 'reality'

is actually recognized.

 

 

Speaking of it

--------------

 

But here there is a negative.

Seen separate or joined, it is

the one reality, the inmost

self of all cause and effect.

In all discourse that speaks of it,

it is not found by precedent

nor anything that is to come.

 

It is the peak, the highest point,

of both activity and rest.

These are two ways of reck'ning it.

 

In it, there is no up or down,

nor any angle in between.

Nor is it anything embodied,

turning round from here to there.

Nor is it made of any parts;

nor is it something found cut off.

It cannot thus be rightly found.

 

It is just that -- although appearing

differently formed in fancies

that arise transformed from

nature's consequential functioning.

As they take on expression and

as they are meaningfully taken

in, the truth of speech is theirs --

for someone who reflects with care.

 

For all divisions that arise --

of state, activity and rest --

are mere expressions, formed by speech.

But that itself remains unchanged.

Because of its continuing

causality, it is called 'akshara'

or 'that which does not change'.

 

 

Finding it within

-----------------

 

In consciousness, reflected back

into itself, is found that background

which pervades through everything.

Just for the sake of making that

same background known, whatever is

made manifest keeps issuing

and flowing on. Thus it is said:

 

" The word is one, a subtle truth

undifferentiated by

objective meaning, as it keeps

on being issued, flowed along.

 

" It's also known as settled deep

within the self: as though it were

a thing apart, away from this

apparent world of different forms. "

 

 

Appearances of world

--------------------

 

Seen turning restless, to and fro,

through aims and objects that arise,

the world starts out from truth,

which is itself unmoved, at one.

 

Where seeming differences appear,

they follow after seeming acts.

Through this unreal partitioning,

extraneous forms seem taken on,

thus showing objects of attention

that keeps turning here and there.

 

These objects are reflected shining --

mere appearances of light

reflecting back upon itself,

like seeming objects in a dream.

 

And further, it has been said:

 

" Embodiment and action are

both manifest appearances.

They are the blind and driven

functioning of brute, unknowing force.

The truth of each is to be found

in just that self which knows them both.

 

" And there, I do not know of them

or speak of them through anything

that is at all apart from truth.

For ignorance is just this state

which comes about from knowing things

through means that are inadequate,

because they are apart from truth. "

 

 

Speech in itself

----------------

 

From that, proceeds the changing world.

What we call 'speech' is that itself.

It is complete reality,

where all succeeding happenings

are comprehended, drawn back in.

Where it is found, all transformations

are thrown back into their inmost

nature: where they each arise,

where each is still unmanifest.

 

It is the formless meeting point,

where everything has been rolled up

and all things are thus found dissolved.

Just that is prior to all else.

 

It can't be rightly signified

by any transformations tied

together into seeming form.

From it proceed the transformations

that are jointly called the 'world'.

 

Accordingly, it has been said:

 

" Although it's that which must belong

to all descriptions and expression,

it can never be confined

in anything that may appear.

Through argument, authority

and inference, it gets to be

described in many different ways.

 

" It is beyond what's separate

or mixed, what happens or does not,

what follows on or what may not,

what's right and true or false and wrong.

As true discernment is attained,

it shines, as everyone's own self,

illuminating everything.

 

" It is the one support and guide,

found in all beings in the world,

controlling each from deep within.

It's seen immediately here,

yet far beyond all seeming things.

 

" It is complete, unbroken freedom:

sought by those who long for it,

just for the sake of being free.

 

" It is untutored naturalness,

the ground of nature in itself,

originating all the

transformations that are reached thereby;

just as, at summer's end, the season's

potency gives rise to massive

cloud-formations in the sky.

 

" Thus consciousness, though one alone,

seems differentiated forth

in a variety of ways;

just like the convoluted show

induced by energy of heat,

in water vapour seen arising

from the ocean's vast expanse.

 

" It's that which stands, the inmost form,

the common, universal

principle of every different class.

From it are born all kinds of

changeable particulars: as rainy

thunderclouds are born from air.

 

" That highest light reflects through three

apparent forms. It's spoken of

in different ways of reaching it,

recording different points of view.

 

" In its own nature, it is peace

of knowledge shining undisturbed.

 

" But on the other hand, there is

this aspect where -- though it is

inexhaustible -- it seems to have

been swallowed up by ignorance,

which cannot ever be explained

with satisfying clarity.

 

" This ignorance is everywhere.

Of its transactions in the world,

there is no measure to be found.

But what it thus accomplishes

does not exist, in one's own self.

 

" The background of the sky itself

is space alone that's pure and clear,

pervading thus through everything.

 

" But someone born, who's overcome

by patchily defective sight,

may fancy that pure space confused

with variegated elements

that seem to show a picturing.

 

" It is just so with all of this

entire world. It is itself

reality, unlimited,

which does not suffer change or death.

 

" Through an apparent ignorance,

as it turns manifested here

and there, it seems degraded,

into an affected turbulence

of differentiated forms.

 

" This manifested universe

is in itself reality.

It's a construction measured out

and fabricated out of speech.

It's nothing but the power of speech

recording what it manifests.

 

" Its manifesting is made up

of spoken elements alone.

It is just them and nothing else.

In each of them, it merges back,

into unmixed reality. "