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Triṃśikā (Vasubandhu) with Sthiramati's bhāṣya · 21
paratantrasvabhāvas tu vikalpaḥ pratyayodbhavaḥ niṣpannas tasya pūrveṇa sadā rahitatā tu yā
Translation. But the other-dependent nature (paratantra-svabhāva)
is construction (vikalpa), arisen from conditions;
the perfected nature (pariniṣpanna), in turn, is that state:
its being always utterly devoid of the former [imagined nature]—
the grasped-and-grasper duality.
Grammar check: 11 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 |
| paratantrasvabhāvaḥ | paratantrasvabhāva | pass |
| tu | tu | pass |
| vikalpaḥ | vikalpa | pass |
| pratyayodbhavaḥ | pratyayodbhava | pass |
| niṣpannaḥ | niṣpanna | pass |
| tasya | tad | pass |
| pūrveṇa | pūrva | pass |
| sadā | sadā | pass |
| rahitatā | rahitatā | pass |
| tu | tu | pass |
| yā | yad | 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.
Take paratantrasvabhāvaḥ as the karmadhāraya technical subject ‘the other-dependent nature,’ with vikalpaḥ as its predicate, rather than as a bahuvrīhi merely qualifying vikalpaḥ.→ Karmadhāraya paratantraḥ svabhāvaḥ, functioning as the subject defined by vikalpaḥ.
trbh [1320]atra ca vikalpa iti paratantrasvarūpam āha
Here, with the word ‘vikalpa,’ he states the intrinsic form of the other-dependent.
trbh [1330]uktaḥ paratantraḥ
The other-dependent has been explained.
Render vikalpaḥ as the technical ‘construction,’ not as an ‘option’ or as merely discursive conceptual thought.→ ‘Construction (vikalpa),’ understood contextually as parikalpa and as the mind and mental factors of the three realms.
trbh [1323, 1324]tatra parikalpaḥ
kuśalākuśalāvyākṛtabhedabhinnās traidhātukāś cittacaittāḥ
Here, construction consists of the mind and mental factors belonging to the three realms, differentiated into wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate.
trbh [1325, 1326]yathoktam
abhūtaparikalpas tu cittacaittās tridhātukā iti
As it has been said: ‘The unreal construction is the mind and mental factors of the three realms.’
Analyze pratyayodbhavaḥ as a source-relation tatpuruṣa, ‘arisen from conditions,’ and take it as explaining why the construction is called other-dependent.→ ‘Arisen from conditions’; causal conditions produce the construction and furnish the basis for the designation paratantra.
trbh [1321, 1322]pratyayodbhava ity anenāpi
paratantrābhidhānapravṛttinimittam āha
By ‘arisen from conditions’ he also states the basis for applying the designation ‘other-dependent.’
trbh [1327, 1328, 1329]parair hetupratyayais tantryata iti paratantra utpādyata ity arthaḥ
svato
'nyahetupratyayapratibaddhātmalābha iti yāvaduktaṃ bhavati
It is ‘other-dependent’ because it is governed by other causes and conditions—that is, because it is produced. The meaning conveyed is that its acquisition of being is bound to causes and conditions other than itself.
Understand niṣpannaḥ as the technical perfected nature, pariniṣpanna, and take the relative yā-clause as its definition.→ ‘The perfected nature (pariniṣpanna),’ identified with the invariant absence expressed by rahitatā yā.
trbh [1331, 1332, 1333]pariniṣpannaḥ katham ity ata āha
niṣpannas tasya pūrveṇa sadā rahitatā tu yā
avikārapariniṣpattyā sa pariniṣpannaḥ
To answer ‘What is the perfected?’ he says: ‘The perfected is its always being devoid of the former.’ It is perfected through an unchanging perfection.
trbh [1340]sa pariniṣpannasvabhāvaḥ
That is the perfected nature.
Refer tasya to the other-dependent nature and pūrveṇa to the preceding imagined nature; identify that imagined nature specifically as the nonexistent grasped-and-grasper structure projected in construction.→ ‘Its’ means the other-dependent nature’s; ‘the former’ means the imagined nature, namely grasped-and-grasper duality.
trbh [1334, 1335]tasyeti paratantrasya pūrveṇeti
parikalpitena tasmin vikalpe grāhyagrāhakabhāvaḥ parikalpitaḥ
‘Of it’ means ‘of the other-dependent’; ‘by the former’ means ‘by the imagined.’ In that construction, the status of grasped and grasper is imagined.
trbh [1337, 1338]tasmin vikalpe grāhyagrāhakatvam avidyamānam eva parikalpyata iti parikalpitam
ucyate
Because grasped-and-grasperhood, though nonexistent, is imagined in that construction, it is called ‘imagined.’
Construe pūrveṇa as the complement of rahitatā and take sadā as qualifying an absolute, perpetual absence—not a temporary separation or an absence of the dependent nature itself.→ ‘Its being always utterly devoid of the former imagined nature.’
trbh [1339, 1340]tena grāhyagrāhakeṇa paratantrasya sadā sarvakālam atyantarahitatā yā
sa pariniṣpannasvabhāvaḥ
That perpetual—at all times—absolute being-devoid of the grasped and grasper on the part of the other-dependent is the perfected nature.