Vakyapadiya 1.9-10

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Vakyapadiya 1.9-10

 

From a modern scientific point of view, the search for an ultimately

common principle is often dismissed as 'metaphysical'. Such a

completely general principle cannot of course be narrowed down, by

any of our bodily or sensual or mental faculties. And so it seems

impossible to know. It seems that such a principle is far to broad

for us to talk about it sensibly, unless it is further specified.

 

It's all very well to talk of 'brahman' as the most general principle

of 'all reality'. But such talk is meaningless without some way of

asking further what it is, more specifically. In the Vakyapadiya,

this way of asking is reflective and philosophical. It reflects from

the outside world in general, to an inner principle of knowing that

must be investigated by each individual in particular. In stanza 1.9,

this reflective questioning is made explicit.

 

 

1.9

---

 

satyA vishuddhis tatro 'ktA vidyai 'vai 'ka-padA-'gamA .

yuktA praNava-rUpeNa sarva-vAdA 'virodhinA ..

 

satyA(truth) vishuddhiH(pure, unmixed) tatra(there)

uktA(is uttered, spoken of) vidyA(knowledge) eva(in itself)

eka(one)-pada(word)-AgamA(authentic expression, mantra) .

yuktA(joined) praNava(the humming sound 'om')-

rUpeNa(through its [reflective] form) sarva(all)-vAdA(expositions)

avirodhinA(not contradicting) ..

 

Where unmixed truth is spoken of,

it is there knowledge in itself.

The one-word mantra 'om' joins there,

back into its own origin --

not contradicting any way

in which its truth may be explained.

 

This stanza turns attention back to a subjective principle of

consciousness, which is called 'vidya eva' or 'knowledge in itself'.

That is the inner source of speech, within each individual. And that

subjective principle is identified as a single and unaffected truth,

which is ultimately common to all different and changing appearances

of world, in everyone's experience.

 

That common truth is specifically associated with the joining or the

merging back of the mantra 'om' into its pervading background of

uttered elements (a,u,m), with a reminder of how it may be approached

in many different ways that do not contradict its underlying unity.

 

At this point, a modern reader may get the impression that reasoned

questioning is now being abandoned, in favour of a mystical approach.

But this is not the case. There is no abandonment of reason here.

There is only an acknowledgement that what is sought may be

approached in many ways, including those of reasoned questioning and

mystic exercise (as in the mystic chanting of the mantra 'om').

 

And then, in the following stanza 1.10, there is an explicit

statement that the common principle of underlying truth is not

just 'metaphysical'. It is not just the common principle of 'sat'

or 'existence' that is shared by all outward appearances in the

objective world. It is also 'epistemological' -- as that common

principle called 'cit' or 'consciousness', which is shared by all

partial instruments and fields of inner knowing through our living

faculties of body, sense and mind.

 

 

1.10

----

 

vidhAtus tasya lokAnAm a~Ngo-'pA~Nga-nibandhanAH .

vidyA-'bhedAH

 

vidhAtuH(from [that] giver out) tasya(of it, to it belong)

lokAnAm(of [its] worlds) a~Nga(divisions)-upA~Nga(subdivisions)-

nibandhanAH(recordings) . vidyA(fields of knowledge)-

bhedAH(differentiated)

 

From it all worlds are given out.

To it belong all fields of knowledge --

which record it partially,

in different parts then further

subdivided into smaller parts.

 

pratAyante j~nAna-saMskAra-hetavaH ..

 

pratAyante(are extended)

j~nAna(knowledge)-saMskAra(accomplishment)-hetavaH(motives) ..

 

All motives to learn knowledge and

accomplish things are its extensions,

which express it in the world.

 

 

Ananda