1.9
शब्दज्ञानानुपाती वस्तुशून्यो विकल्पः
śabda-jñānānupātī vastu-śūnyo vikalpaḥ
The line
Conceptualization follows verbal knowing, and it is empty of a thing.
नेपालीमा
विकल्प शब्दको ज्ञानपछि लाग्छ, र त्यो वस्तुबाट रित्तो हुन्छ।
Where it sits
Much of ordinary thinking is this, including a great deal of what one says about yoga. The line does not forbid it. It classifies it, so that a sentence is not mistaken for the presence of the thing the sentence names.
Split: śabda-jñāna-anupātī (शब्दज्ञानअनुपाती) + vastu-śūnyaḥ (वस्तुशून्यः) + vikalpaḥ (विकल्पः)
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| śabda (शब्द) | stem | a word, a sound that means something. |
| jñāna (ज्ञान) | stem | knowing. |
| anupātī (अनुपाती) | nominative singular of anupātin (अनुपातिन्) | following along after. Agrees with vikalpa (विकल्प). |
| vastu (वस्तु) | stem | a thing, an actual object. |
| śūnyaḥ (शून्यः) | nominative singular, inside the compound's end | empty. |
| vikalpaḥ (विकल्पः) | nominative singular, masculine | conceptualization. The third of the five. |
The phrases
vikalpaḥ (विकल्पः) is the subject, placed at the end of the line. Sanskrit can close with the word the line is defining.
śabdajñānānupātī (शब्दज्ञानानुपाती) is "following upon knowing that comes from words." The seam jñāna (ज्ञान) + anupātin (अनुपातिन्) becomes jñānānupātī (ज्ञानानुपाती) by a (अ) + a (अ) = ā (आ). The ending -ī (ई) is the nominative of a stem in -in (इन्).
vastuśūnyaḥ (वस्तुशून्यः) is "empty of a thing." The recited form vastuśūnyo (वस्तुशून्यो) is the visarga rule from 1.8 again: śūnyaḥ (शून्यः) + v (व्) becomes śūnyo (शून्यो), because v (व्) is voiced.
A conceptualization is a mental activity that rides on words and does not have an object in front of it. "A hare's horn" can be discussed. There is no horn to perceive. The words still produce a vṛtti (वृत्ति). That vṛtti (वृत्ति) is vikalpa (विकल्प).
It is not the same as error. Error takes a real object and gets its form wrong. Conceptualization need not have the object at all.
Sanskrit in this line
Stems ending in -in (इन्) (here anupātin (अनुपातिन्), "one that follows") take -ī (ई) in the nominative singular masculine. You see anupātī (अनुपाती), not anupātinḥ (अनुपातिनः).
You have now met the visarga rule of 1.8 twice. Use it rather than relearning it: aḥ (अः) + voiced consonant → o (ओ).
Say it back
In one sentence, what is the difference between viparyaya (विपर्यय) and vikalpa (विकल्प)? Use "form of a real object" and "words."
Next
1.10. Sleep is the mental activity whose support is the cognition of absence.