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Triṃśikā (Vasubandhu) with Sthiramati's bhāṣya · 19
karmaṇo vāsanā grāhadvayavāsanayā saha | kṣīṇe pūrvavipāke 'nyaṃ vipākaṃ janayanti tat
Translation. The karmic imprints (karmavāsanāḥ), together with the imprint of the two graspings (grāhadvayavāsanā)—of the grasped (grāhya) and the grasper (grāhaka)—
when the previous maturation (pūrvavipāka) is exhausted, generate another maturation: that very store consciousness (ālayavijñāna).
Grammar check: 10 words pass / 0 flagged / 0 beyond the checkerPāṇini-verified
Every word's claimed grammar is re-derived with vidyut-prakriya, software implementing Pāṇini's rules. Flags are shown, never hidden; some are the text taking epic or Vedic liberties the classical rules do not generate.
Word by word
| surface | lemma | grammar |
| karmaṇaḥ | karman | pass |
| vāsanāḥ | vāsanā | pass |
| grāhadvayavāsanayā | grāhadvayavāsanā | pass |
| saha | saha | pass |
| kṣīṇe | kṣīṇa | pass |
| pūrvavipāke | pūrvavipāka | pass |
| anyam | anya | pass |
| vipākam | vipāka | pass |
| janayanti | jan | pass |
| tat | tad | pass |
How the commentary settled it
Where the verse alone is ambiguous, the reading follows Sthiramati's commentary; the deciding lines are quoted below each decision.
karmaṇaḥ vāsanāḥ denotes the karmic imprints, and vāsanāḥ is nominative plural—the subject of janayanti—not nominative singular.→ Restore vāsanāḥ. The commentary defines karmavāsanā as a capacity deposited by karma and later explicitly refers to these imprints with the plural yās tāḥ.
trbh [1160, 1161, 1162]puṇyāpuṇyāneñjyacetanā karma
tena karmaṇā yad
anāgatātmabhāvābhinirvṛttaye ālayavijñāne sāmarthyam āhitaṃ sā karmavāsanā
Meritorious, nonmeritorious, and immovable volition is karma. The capacity deposited by that karma in store consciousness for the production of a future embodied existence is the karmic imprint.
trbh [1449, 1450]atha vā yās tāḥ karmavāsanā grāhadvayavāsanāsahitāḥ
kṣīṇe pūrvavipāke 'nyaṃ vipākaṃ janayantīty
Alternatively, those karmic imprints which, accompanied by the imprint of the two graspings, generate another maturation when the previous maturation is exhausted …
grāhadvayavāsanā means the imprint of the two graspings: grasping of the grasped and grasping of the grasper.→ The third: the commentary explicitly enumerates grāhyagrāha and grāhakagrāha and defines their imprint as a seed for future graspings of the same kinds.
trbh [1163, 1164, 1165, 1166, 1167]grāhadvayaṃ grāhyagraho grāhakagrāhaś ca
tatra vijñānāt pṛthag eva
svasantānādhyāsitaṃ grāhyam astīty adhyavasāyo grāhyagrāhaḥ
tac ca vijñānena
pratīyate vijñāyate gṛhyata iti yo 'yaṃ niścayaḥ sa grahakagrāhaḥ
The pair of graspings consists of grasping the grasped and grasping the grasper. Grasping the grasped is the determination that an object imposed upon one’s own continuum exists separately from cognition; grasping the grasper is the conviction that it is apprehended, cognized, or grasped by cognition.
trbh [1168, 1169]pūrvotpannagrāhyagrāhakagrāhākṣiptam
anāgatatajjātīyagrāhyagrāhakagrāhotpattibījaṃ grāhadvayavāsanā
The imprint of the two graspings is the seed, projected by previously arisen graspings of object and subject, for future graspings of object and subject of the same kinds.
grāhadvayavāsanayā saha expresses causal accompaniment: the karmic imprints generate maturation only with the imprint of the two graspings acting as a cooperating condition.→ Comitative accompaniment with cooperation, because the commentary calls the grasping-imprint a sahakārin and denies that karmic imprints produce maturation unaided.
trbh [1172, 1173, 1174]grāhadvayavāsanā tu sarvakarmavāsanānāṃ yathāsvam ākṣiptātmabhāvotpādane
pravṛttānāṃ sahakāritvaṃ pratipadyate
tadyathā abādayo bījasyāṅkurotpattāv
The imprint of the two graspings assumes the role of a cooperating condition for all karmic imprints engaged in producing the embodied existences respectively projected by them, just as water and the other conditions cooperate with a seed in producing a sprout.
trbh [1176, 1177, 1178, 1179]evañ ca na kevalāḥ karmavāsanā grāhadvayavāsanānanugṛhītā vipākañ janayantīty
uktaṃ bhavati
ata evāha
grahādvayavāsanayā saheti
Thus it is stated that karmic imprints alone, when not assisted by the imprint of the two graspings, do not generate maturation. Therefore he says, ‘together with the imprint of the two graspings.’
kṣīṇe pūrvavipāke is a locative absolute: ‘when the previous maturation has been exhausted,’ more precisely when it has reached its terminal state after being experienced.→ The temporal locative absolute, since the commentary paraphrases tasmin kṣīṇe as paryantāvasthite and contrasts the new maturation with the one already experienced.
trbh [1181, 1182, 1183]pūrvajanmopacitena karmaṇā ya iti vipāko 'bhinirvṛttas tasmin kṣīṇa ity
ākṣepakāle paryantāvasthite yathābalaṃ karmavāsanā grāhadvayavāsanāsahitā
upabhūktād vipākād anyaṃ vipākaṃ tad evālayavijñānaṃ janayanti
When the maturation produced by karma accumulated in a previous life has become exhausted—that is, has reached its terminal state at the time of projection—the karmic imprints, according to their strength and accompanied by the imprint of the two graspings, generate a maturation other than the maturation already experienced: that very store consciousness.
Follow the bhāṣya reading anyaṃ vipākam as a free accusative adjective plus noun, rather than the vulgate compound anyadvipākam.→ The bhāṣya reading, because both the initial quotation and the later requotation preserve anyaṃ vipākam, and the prose commentary repeats upabhūktād vipākād anyaṃ vipākam.
trbh [1180]kṣīṇe pūrvavipāke 'nyaṃ vipākaṃ janayanti tad iti
‘When the previous maturation is exhausted, they generate another maturation—that.’
trbh [1183]upabhūktād vipākād anyaṃ vipākaṃ tad evālayavijñānaṃ janayanti
They generate a maturation other than the maturation already experienced—namely, that very store consciousness.
trbh [1450]kṣīṇe pūrvavipāke 'nyaṃ vipākaṃ janayantīty
‘They generate another maturation when the previous maturation is exhausted.’
tat is neuter accusative and refers to store consciousness (ālayavijñāna), specifying the identity of the newly generated maturation; it is not an adverb meaning ‘then.’→ The third, because the commentary directly expands tat as tad evālayavijñānam and states that no other maturation exists apart from store consciousness.
trbh [1183, 1184]upabhūktād vipākād anyaṃ vipākaṃ tad evālayavijñānaṃ janayanti
ālayavijñānavyatirekeṇānyasya vipākasyābhāvāt
They generate a maturation other than the maturation already experienced—namely, that very store consciousness—because there is no other maturation apart from store consciousness.
trbh [1188, 1189, 1190]cakṣurādivijñānavyatiriktam ālayavijñānam asti
tad eva ca sarvabījakaṃ na
cakṣurādivijñānam iti kuta etat
Store consciousness exists distinct from the visual and other cognitions, and it alone, not visual and the other cognitions, possesses all seeds.
janayanti is an active causative with the plural karmic imprints as agents and the new maturation as object.→ Active causative ‘they generate.’ The commentary repeatedly places karmavāsanāḥ as the plural agent, accompanied by the grasping-imprint, and anyaṃ vipākam as the object.
trbh [1182, 1183]ākṣepakāle paryantāvasthite yathābalaṃ karmavāsanā grāhadvayavāsanāsahitā
upabhūktād vipākād anyaṃ vipākaṃ tad evālayavijñānaṃ janayanti
At the terminal state, the karmic imprints, according to their strength and accompanied by the imprint of the two graspings, generate another maturation—namely, store consciousness.
trbh [1449, 1450]atha vā yās tāḥ karmavāsanā grāhadvayavāsanāsahitāḥ
kṣīṇe pūrvavipāke 'nyaṃ vipākaṃ janayantīty
Those karmic imprints which, accompanied by the imprint of the two graspings, generate another maturation when the previous maturation is exhausted …
The two temporal assertions form a continuity without identity: exhaustion of the old maturation rejects eternalism, while production of another rejects annihilationism.→ A succession of distinct maturations, exactly as the commentary assigns the two clauses to avoiding the eternalist and annihilationist extremes.
trbh [1185, 1186, 1187]kṣīṇe pūrvavipāka ity anena
śāśvatāntaṃ pariharati
anyaṃ vipākaṃ janayantīty ucchedāntam
By ‘when the previous maturation is exhausted’ he avoids the extreme of eternalism; by ‘they generate another maturation,’ the extreme of annihilationism.