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Essays, Opinion, & Commentary |
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Some Reflections on Bhartrihari's View of Language (continued)
In order to describe the expression of meaning in words and symbols, Bhartrihari conceives it as floating overlay (upaplava) upon an underlying knowledge.
Here, as knowledge is described to enter into use, there are three elements:
In short, (as summarized in Figure 3) there is a triad of three things: a differentiated object to be known, a successive process of knowing, and a consciousness that knows.
In advaita philosophy, this triad is called 'drishya-darshana-drashtri' or 'the seen, the seeing and the see-er'. Through this simple analysis, Bhartrihari makes his famous distinction between three levels of speech: vaikhari, madhyama and pashyanti. These three levels are described in some agama (authoritative) stanzas quoted in the vritti commentary on the Vakyapadiya, 1.142. Four of these stanzas are quoted and explained, in the subsequent four subsections of this essay.
This first stanza describes 'vaikhari vak' or 'elaborated speech'. The elaboration takes place through an articulation of spoken elements (phonemes, syllables etc.), which are carried in 'vayu' or 'air'. However, that 'air' is not just physical. As 'vayu', it is the fourth of five cosmic elements [2], in our experience of the physical and mental world. It is the 'atmospheric' element of qualitative conditioning: which can be 'felt, but not seen'. It conditions space and time, with a pervading climate of influencing qualities that are intuitively felt, through inner judgement and evaluation. These qualities are not seen as gross objects, through outward sense and intellect. Instead, they are more subtly felt, as their conditioning surrounds and pervades the grosser objects of the world. It is through this climate, of physical and mental conditioning, that speech gets articulated, into complex structures. Moreover, as words are spoken, they express a living meaning, in the structures that they form. This expression is conceived through the Sanskrit word 'prana'. Physically, the word is associated with the flow of breath in our bodies. As air is breathed, in and out, it refreshes our living functions. And it gets vibrated from within, producing sounds that show a living consciousness, expressed in various changing forms and names and qualities of speech. Prana is the energy of this expression. It is not a physical energy that acts from one object to another. Instead, it is a living energy that rises up from consciousness, which it expresses in the flow of meaningful activity. Like the energy of modern physics, prana acts through subtle vibrations in the conditioning of space and time; and objects are thus interconnected patterns of its dynamic activity. But prana is an energy that's understood biologically, through considerations of living purpose, meaning and value that are specifically excluded from modern physics. Where modern physics is applied externally, through calculation and engineering, the living energy of prana is investigated reflectively, through education and intensive discipline. As words express their meaning, they record a knowledge that continues from the past. This 'recording' is called 'nibandhana'. Literally, it means 'tying back' or 'tying down'. 'Nibandhana' is what ties words to the concrete meaning that supports them. It is the grounding of words, in the underlying knowledge that they record. Here, it is not conceived that a passing knowledge is made to last, by tying it down to material records like written documents. In fact, the conception is just the opposite. Where knowledge is genuine, it is inherently alive and unchanging, in itself. Material records are inherently dead and decaying. They come to life only when their meaning is interpreted afresh, by living speakers, on the basis of a living energy whose functioning grounds words in lasting knowledge. This is the root meaning of the English word 'record'. The prefix 're-' means 'back'; and 'cord' comes from the Latin 'cor', which means 'heart'. Thus, the word 'record' implies a return to heart, and hence a recalling and a fresh visiting of knowledge that continues in the heart. Material records are only a degraded and decaying means of that living recall.
This second stanza describes 'madhyama vak' or 'mediating speech'. The mediation takes place through mind, and it is of two kinds. One kind of mediation is called 'krama' or 'succession'. Here, mind is a process that takes place in time, mediating between the past and the future. At each moment of time, a state of mind appears, replacing previous states. Each state displays a momentary form of mind, which has been formed by transformation from the past, in a continuing process of perception, thought and feeling. The mind is thus a passing stream of apparent forms, each form a momentary display of the entire process. But, as these forms succeed each other in our minds, meaning is expressed in them, through our living functioning. That functioning is called 'vritti' or 'turning'. It is of course the functioning of prana's living energy. It functions by turning back and forth: between the objects mind perceives, and the consciousness that knows the changing stream of perception in the mind. Here, there is a revolving cycle: as consciousness is expressed in the mind's perception of objects, and as each perception is assimilated back through mind into consciousness again. By thus going out to perceived objects and then reflecting back within, the mind keeps mediating between a world of changing things and a consciousness that carries on beneath. This is another kind of mediation, which does not stay in passing time. Instead, it repeatedly returns into a timeless consciousness: which knows all changes from beneath. Each time a perception is absorbed into that consciousness, there is a timeless interval, where mind subsides and disappears. There, mind's living energy has come to rest. Its time-bound functioning is left behind, before new states of mind appear. That's how the mind proceeds from state to state. It keeps going on beyond, to where it is dissolved, transcending its own time-affected functioning.
This third stanza describes 'pashyanti' or 'seeing'. That seeing is not a changing action of body, sense or mind. Instead, it is a changeless presence, staying present everywhere, through all experiences. As different appearances succeed each other in our minds, it is their common principle of consciousness, which witnesses them all. Its witnessing takes each of them into itself, where all succession is absorbed. To describe it in itself, it is called 'svarupa-jyoti' or the 'true nature of light'. 'Jyoti' means 'light' and 'svarupa' means 'true nature'. A 'rupa' is an apparent form, modified by changeable perception. 'Sva-' is a prefix that means 'inherent' or 'one's own'. So the svarupa of something is its inherent essence, beneath the changing forms that modify its appearances from different points of view. When something is known from within, as it is in itself, there its svarupa is realized. That is not a looking from outside, taking one of many points of view in the external world. Instead, it is a knowing in identity. It requires that one stands identical with what is known. So, when seeing is described as the svarupa of light, it is a seeing that knows itself, from within, as self-illuminating light. And it is realized by reflecting back to it, as one's own knowing self, from where all mind and world are illuminated. From there, it speaks unceasingly, as it is expressed through all experience of the physical and mental world. That speaking is called 'sukshma vak' or 'subtle speech'. It is too subtle to be heard through outward faculties of sense and mind, whose attention is distracted by the noisy clamour of apparent change and its competing differences. That subtle speaking thus remains unheard and unperceived, by our outward faculties. From outside, it seems dark and silent; even though its nature is pure light, which sees everything and keeps on speaking everywhere.
Here, there is a description of what came to be called 'para' or 'beyond'. In Bhartrihari's Vakyapadiya and its vritti commentary, this term 'para' is not used to denote a fourth level of speech. Bhartrihari says that speech is threefold; and he treats the third level of pashyanti as ultimate. It's later on in the tradition that the name 'para' appears, referring to a fourth level. As a result, there came to be a fourfold division of levels, which was used extensively, in connection with Shaivite theology. Then, pashyanti was treated in a slightly degraded way: not as consciousness itself, but as the silent witnessing through which consciousness illuminates and inspires the changing world. In this fourth stanza (quoted from the vritti commentary), consciousness is described as unconditioned, beyond the conditioned differences that are superimposed upon it. This superimposition is called 'viplava'. 'Plava' means 'floating', and the prefix 'vi-' implies 'distinction' and 'difference'. So viplava is a floating overlay of difference and disturbing change. As consciousness appears, it seems thus mixed with a floating overlay, which confuses our understanding. To correct the confusion, consciousness must be distinguished from all the changing and conditioned things that are perceived through mind. When the distinction is complete, consciousness turns out to be pure being, completely unaffected by the limited appearances that are superimposed by partial mind and senses. That pure being is called 'sattva-matra'. It is the one reality of everything that's known, throughout the entire universe. Thus, by distinguishing consciousness as that which knows, it turns out to be identical with all reality, where all distinctions are dissolved. By fully separating that which knows from what is known, the duality between them is completed, and a non-dual unity is realized.
Thus, from Bhartrihari's view of language, there arises a fourfold division of levels in our descriptions of the world. In this analysis, the deepest level is an undifferentiated ground, which is taken to be purely subjective and completely impersonal. The other three levels arise from it, thus expressing it through mind and body, in the differentiated world. The ground and its three levels of expression are schematically shown in Figure 4.
Vaikhari is the outward surface of our descriptions. Here, our descriptions are elaborated structures of objective symbols, crudely showing us a grossly manifested world of objects. As differentiated symbols are related into structures, they show a similarly structured world of differentiated objects, co-existing with each other through described relationships in external space. Madhyama is the mediating process of conception, through which our descriptive structures form and carry out their functioning. Here, states of knowing come and go, succeeding one another in a manifesting process that keeps forming and transforming our conceptions and descriptions of observed phenomena. As our states of conceiving change, they enable us to learn from experience, in the course of unfolding time. Pashyanti is a continued witnessing that carries on through changing states, thus enabling our experience of learning to progress through time. This witnessing continues at the depth of mind, beneath the changing and distracting appearances at the surface of attention. Beneath appearances, this depth contains an unmanifest potential, of latent samskaras, or seeds of conditioning that carry on from past experiences and happenings. The depth of mind thus seems to be a hidden and 'unconscious' causality, by which the past affects the present and the future, as our changing personalities experience the apparent world. But in this seeming 'unconsciousness', there is the silent seeing of a quiet insight, from which our transforming minds conceive the world that they describe. Para is a non-dual consciousness, beyond all differences of seeming world. In that consciousness, there is no duality between what knows and what is known. For it turns out that the seeming 'unconscious' at the depth of mind is not unconscious in itself. It lacks a seeming 'consciousness of objects', but it is self-illuminating in itself. Its silent seeing is thus consciousness alone, shining by itself, unmixed with any of the partial and misleading appearances that we call 'objects'. That pure consciousness is all reality, the complete and uncompromised reality of anything that's ever truly known. But what could be the use of such an analysis? How could it be applied, so as to achieve our various objectives in the world? Bhartrihari makes it plain that the application is not technological. It is not meant for developing some technological power to achieve prescribed objectives. Instead, the application is through education. It is meant for a reflective questioning that clarifies our understanding of what we observe and know. Thus, in Bhartrihari's view, the study of language is essentially an educational science, which belongs to what Parmenides called the way of 'aletheia' or 'truth'. In the end, such an educational science does not work technologically, through prescriptions based upon the accepted assumptions of 'doxa' or 'belief'. Instead it works through a questioning and clarifying examination that investigates its way reflectively, towards a clear knowing that the ancient Greeks called 'nous' or 'noesis'. At the beginning of the Vakyapadiya, Bhartrihari gives us a clear definition of linguistics, as an educational science of this kind.
Notes: 1. Traditionally, the vritti commentary is said to have been written by Bhartrihari himself. As is usual in such cases, it is a matter of dispute among scholars whether to accept this tradition or not. 2. The five elements are: 'prithivi' or 'earth' (gross matter, separated into objects), 'apas' or 'water' (transforming energy, which flows in dynamic patterns of activity), 'tejas' or 'fire' (illuminating information, throwing light through meaningful representations), 'vayu' or 'air' (qualitative conditioning, which influences tendencies of character), and 'akasha' or 'ether' (connecting continuity, which settles conflicts and harmonizes differences).
Dr. Ananda Wood is an Indian national, living in Pune, India. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from King College, Cambridge, and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago. He worked for a while as a junior industrial executive in India, but has now settled down to an old interest in the modern interpretation of traditional knowledge. The basic interest is a spiritual one, in Advaita philosophy. He has published a book on traditional education in modernizing Kerala and a couple of books on the Upanishads, plus some articles and papers. |
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