20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

Śabdasaṃskāra, a mere grammatical technique? 495From the point of view of orthodox schools Sāṃkhya – Yoga, Nyāya –Vaiśeṣika and mostly the Vedānta, supreme happiness (abhyudaya) is buta temporary state, inferior by all means to real emancipation (apavarga,mokṣa). In this regard, heterodox schools of Jainism and Buddhism areeven more emphatic about it. This kind of happiness seems to be supremeachievement for Mīmāṃsākas alone.Bhartṛhari is definitely not shaking hands with the last ones. If we goby the tradition which makes of Bhartṛhari the author of the commentarytoo, then things need no further demonstration. Provided that Vṛṣabha issomebody else than Bhartṛhari, still the Vṛtti of the kārikā 144 points outin a quite unmistakable manner at a grammatical tradition which is able toconceive a way out to attaining Brahman through grammatical techniques.Is the śabdasaṃskāra this way? And if it is so, how does it exactly acttowards achieving union to brahman śabda-tattva? The previous verse143, which must be read with verse 144 as required by the indeclinabletasmāt (therefore), says:It has been said that Self, which is within the speaker, is the word, thegreat Bull with whom one desires union. 16We can see again Bhartṛhari quoting a tradition, which the commentatorsupports by referring to the principle of the suppression of sequence orsuccession taking the help of the visibly Upaniṣadic ideas of self realisation. 17After taking his stand on the word which lies beyond the activity ofbreath, after having taken rest in oneself by the union resulting in thesuppression of sequence,After having purified speech and after having rested it on the mind, afterhaving broken its bonds and made it bond-free.After having reached the inner light, he, with his knots cut, becomesunited with Supreme Light. 1816VP I. 143: api prayoktur ātmānam śabdam antaravasthitam / prāhur mahāntamṛṣabhaṃ yena sāyujyam iṣyate //17As M. Biardeau is also mentioning, these verses have been ascribed by Northmanuscripts to Bhartṛhari himself, but there is no solid argument to prove it. She alsonotices the archaic character of the verses, which again precludes Bhartṛhari from theirauthorship. Vide M. Biardeau 1964: 168, note 2.18Vṛtti I.143: prāṇavṛttim atikrānte vācas tattve vyavasthitaḥ / kramasaṃhārayogenasaṃhṛtyātmānam ātmani // vācaḥ saṃskāram ādhāya vācaṃ jāne niveśya ca /vibhajya bandhanāny asyāḥ kṛtvā tāṃ chinnabandhanam // jyotir āntaram āsādyachinnagranthiparigṛhaḥ / pareṇa jyotiṣaikatvaṃ chitvā granthīn prapadyate’’. Englishtranslation by K.A.Subramanya Iyer.