Bhartrihari Quotes on Knowledge
Bhartrihari (c. 450–510) is the author of the Vakyapadiya — the foundational work of the philosophical grammarian (vyakarana) tradition of classical India. The principal philosophical thesis is sphota — that the unitary meaning of an utterance is grasped as a sudden cognitive flash that is irreducible to the sequence of phonemes through which the utterance is articulated — and the corresponding metaphysical doctrine of sabda-brahman, in which the ultimate reality is identified with the eternal Word from which the manifold of the phenomenal world unfolds. The framework integrates the technical Sanskrit grammatical tradition descending from Panini with the Upanishadic monism of the Vedantic schools, and supplied the principal Indian philosophical theory of language against which the Buddhist apoha doctrine and the Mimamsaka theory of meaning would each be developed.
Quotes
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Attributed to Bhartrihari:
“All cognition is permeated by language.”
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Attributed to Bhartrihari:
“There is no thought that is not interwoven with words.”
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Attributed to Bhartrihari:
“The word is the seed from which all reality unfolds.”
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“यां चिन्तयामि सततं मयि सा विरक्ता साप्यन्यमिच्छति जनं स जनोऽन्यसक्त:। अस्मत्कृते च परिशुष्यति काचिदन्या धिक्ताञ्च तं च मदनं च इमां च मां च ॥”
The maid my true heart loves would not my true love be; She seeks another man; another maid loves he; And me another maid her own true love would see: Oh, fie on her and him and Love and HER and me! Nītiśataka 2 Variant translation from K.M. Joglekar: That woman about whom I constantly meditate has no affection for me; she, however, yearns after another who is attached to someone else; while a cer -
“यदा किञ्चिज्ज्ञोऽहं द्विप इव मदान्ध: समभवम् तदा सर्वज्ञोऽस्मीत्यभवदवलिप्तं मम मन:। यदा किञ्चित्किञ्चिद्बुधजनसकाशादवगतं तदा मूर्खोऽस्मीति ज्वर इव मदो मे व्यपगत:॥”
When I knew but a little, I was blinded by pride as an elephant is blinded by rut from excitement, and my mind was puffed up with the idea that I knew everything. When, however, I gradually gained knowledge through the contact of the wise I found I was a fool; and the pride, which had possessed me like a fever, left me. Nītiśataka 8; translation of K.M. Joglekar -
“When I knew but a little, I was blinded by pride as an elephant is blinded by rut from excitement, and my mind was puffed up with the idea that I knew everything. When, however, I gradually gained knowledge through the contact of the wise I found I was a fool; and the pride, which had possessed me like a fever, left me. Nītiśataka 8; translation of K.M. Joglekar”
यदा किञ्चिज्ज्ञोऽहं द्विप इव मदान्ध: समभवम् तदा सर्वज्ञोऽस्मीत्यभवदवलिप्तं मम मन:। यदा किञ्चित्किञ्चिद्बुधजनसकाशादवगतं तदा मूर्खोऽस्मीति ज्वर इव मदो मे व्यपगत:॥ -
“संपत्सु महतां चित्तं भवत्युत्पलकोमलं । आपत्सु च महाशैलशिलासंघातकर्कशम् ॥”
In opulence the heart of great men is as soft as that of a lotus flower, but in adversity the same hardens like a rock of a big mountain. Nītiśataka 65 -
“In opulence the heart of great men is as soft as that of a lotus flower, but in adversity the same hardens like a rock of a big mountain. Nītiśataka 65”
संपत्सु महतां चित्तं भवत्युत्पलकोमलं । आपत्सु च महाशैलशिलासंघातकर्कशम् ॥ -
“श्रोतं श्रुतेनैव न कुण्डलेन दानेन पाणिर्न तु कङ्कणेन”
A person's ears get glorified by listening to scriptures and not by wearing ear-rings, hands are adorned by giving alms to the poor and not by wearing bracelets. Nītiśataka 71 -
“A person's ears get glorified by listening to scriptures and not by wearing ear-rings, hands are adorned by giving alms to the poor and not by wearing bracelets. Nītiśataka 71”
श्रोतं श्रुतेनैव न कुण्डलेन दानेन पाणिर्न तु कङ्कणेन -
“The sun opens the lotuses; the moon illuminates the beds of water-lilies; the cloud pours forth its water unasked: even so the liberal of their own accord are occupied in benefiting others.”
Nītiśataka 73; B. Hale Wortham translation -
“Nītiśataka 73; B. Hale Wortham translation”
The sun opens the lotuses; the moon illuminates the beds of water-lilies; the cloud pours forth its water unasked: even so the liberal of their own accord are occupied in benefiting others.