back to questions
Triṃśikā (Vasubandhu) with Sthiramati's bhāṣya · 4
upekṣā vedanā tatrānivṛtāvyākṛtañ ca tat tathā sparśādayaḥ tac ca vartate srotasaughavat
Translation. In it—the store-consciousness (ālayavijñāna)—feeling (vedanā) is equanimity (upekṣā);
and it is unobscured-indeterminate (anivṛtāvyākṛta).
Contact and the rest (sparśādayaḥ) are likewise;
and it proceeds as a stream (srotas), like a torrent (ogha).
Grammar check: 13 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 |
| upekṣā | upekṣā | pass |
| vedanā | vedanā | pass |
| tatra | tatra | pass |
| anivṛtāvyākṛtam | anivṛtāvyākṛta | pass |
| ca | ca | pass |
| tat | tad | pass |
| tathā | tathā | pass |
| sparśādayaḥ | sparśādi | pass |
| tat | tad | pass |
| ca | ca | pass |
| vartate | vṛt | pass |
| srotasā | srotas | pass |
| oghavat | oghavat | 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.
Construe tatra as ‘in the store-consciousness,’ rather than as a vague discourse adverb or as referring to feeling.→ ‘In it—the store-consciousness (ālayavijñāna).’
trbh [308]tatrety ālayavijñānam eva prakṛtatvāt saṃbadhyate
With ‘in it,’ precisely the store-consciousness is connected, because it is the topic under discussion.
Translate upekṣā as the technical affective quality ‘equanimity’ and construe upekṣā and vedanā predicatively: the feeling is equanimity.→ ‘Its feeling (vedanā) is equanimity (upekṣā).’
trbh [309, 310, 311]upekṣaivālayavijñāne
vedanā na sukhā na duḥkhā tayoḥ paricchinnālambanākāratvād
rāgadveṣānuśayitatvāc ca
In the store-consciousness the feeling is equanimity alone, neither pleasure nor pain, because those two have determinate objects and aspects and are conditioned by the latent tendencies of attachment and aversion.
Analyze anivṛtāvyākṛtam as a neuter singular technical karmadhāraya predicated of ālayavijñāna: ‘unobscured-indeterminate.’ The first member excludes the obscured class, while the second excludes both wholesome and unwholesome classes.→ Technical karmadhāraya anivṛta-avyākṛta, ‘unobscured-indeterminate.’
trbh [312, 313, 314, 315]anivṛtāvyākṛtañ ca tat
ālayavijñānam iti prakṛtam
tatrānivṛtagrahaṇaṃ nivṛtavyavacchedārtham
avyākṛtagrahaṇaṃ kuśalākuśalavyavacchedārtham
And it is unobscured-indeterminate; the store-consciousness is what is under discussion. Here the expression ‘unobscured’ serves to exclude the obscured, and the expression ‘indeterminate’ serves to exclude the wholesome and unwholesome.
trbh [316, 317, 318]manobhūmikair āgantukair upakleśair anāvṛtatvād anivṛtam
vipākatvād vipākaṃ
prati kuśalākuśalatvenāvyākaraṇād avyākṛtam
It is unobscured because it is not covered by adventitious secondary defilements belonging to the mental level; it is indeterminate because, being a result, it is not classified as wholesome or unwholesome.
Take sparśādayaḥ as the bahuvrīhi ‘contact and the rest,’ denoting the associated group beginning with contact, rather than merely the plural of ādi with sparśa left syntactically separate.→ Bahuvrīhi sparśādi: ‘contact and the rest.’
trbh [323, 324, 325]ātmānaṃ hitvetaraiś caturbhir
ālayavijñānena ca nityam anugatās teṣu copekṣaiva vedanānivṛtāvyākṛtāś
cālayavijñānavat
Leaving itself aside, each is always accompanied by the other four and by the store-consciousness; among them the feeling is equanimity alone, and they are unobscured-indeterminate like the store-consciousness.
trbh [341, 342]gacchaty evam ālayavijñānam api puṇyāpuṇyāneñjyakarmavāsanānugataṃ
sparśamanaskārādīn ākarṣan srotasāsaṃsāram avyuparataṃ pravartata iti
So too the store-consciousness, accompanied by the impressions of meritorious, nonmeritorious, and immovable actions, proceeds without ceasing, drawing along contact, attention, and the rest.
Give tathā broad anaphoric scope: contact and the remaining associated factors share the relevant characteristics already stated, not merely the immediately preceding word ‘indeterminate.’→ ‘Contact and the rest are likewise [so].’
trbh [320, 321, 322]yathālayavijñānam ekāntena vipāko 'paricchinnālambanākāraṃ sadā sparśādibhir
anvitaṃ tatra copekṣaiva vedanānivṛtāvyākṛtañ ca tathā sparśādayo 'py ekāntena
vipākā evāparicchinnālambanākārāś ca
Just as the store-consciousness is exclusively resultant, has an undelimited object and aspect, is always accompanied by contact and the rest, has equanimity alone as its feeling, and is unobscured-indeterminate, so too contact and the rest are exclusively resultant and have undelimited objects and aspects.
trbh [326, 327]na hi vipākena saṃprayuktānām avipākatvam
aparicchinnālambanākāreṇa ca paricchinnālambanākāratvaṃ saṃbhavati
For factors associated with something resultant cannot be nonresultant, nor can what is associated with an undelimited object and aspect have a delimited object and aspect.
Resolve both occurrences of neuter tat as referring to ālayavijñāna, not to vedanā or sparśādayaḥ.→ Both pronouns resume the store-consciousness.
trbh [312, 313]anivṛtāvyākṛtañ ca tat
ālayavijñānam iti prakṛtam
And it is unobscured-indeterminate; the store-consciousness is what is under discussion.
trbh [334, 335]tac ca vartate srotasaughavat
tac cety ālayavijñānam eva saṃbadhyate
And it proceeds as a stream, torrent-like. With ‘and it,’ precisely the store-consciousness is connected.
Segment srotasaughavat as srotasā + oghavat: an instrumental of manner followed by a neuter nominative singular adjective predicated of tat. The commentary establishes the adjective’s contextual force as ‘torrent-like.’→ srotasā ‘as/by way of a stream’ + inflected oghavat ‘torrent-like.’
trbh [336, 337, 338, 339]tatra sroto hetuphalayor
nairantaryaprabandhena pravṛttiḥ
udakasamūhasya pūrvāparabhāgāvicchedena
pravāha ogha ity ucyate
Here ‘stream’ is the proceeding of cause and effect in an uninterrupted continuum. The flow of a mass of water without a break between its earlier and later portions is called a ‘torrent.’
trbh [340, 341, 342]yathā hy oghas tṛṇakāṣṭhagomayādīn ākarṣayaṅ
gacchaty evam ālayavijñānam api puṇyāpuṇyāneñjyakarmavāsanānugataṃ
sparśamanaskārādīn ākarṣan srotasāsaṃsāram avyuparataṃ pravartata iti
For just as a torrent goes while drawing along grass, wood, dung, and so forth, so too the store-consciousness, accompanied by the impressions of meritorious, nonmeritorious, and immovable actions, proceeds without ceasing while drawing along contact, attention, and the rest.
Translate vartate dynamically as ‘proceeds’ and understand the continuity as a causal series of momentary events, not as endurance of one indivisible consciousness.→ ‘It proceeds as a stream, like a torrent.’
trbh [330, 331, 332, 333, 334]kiṃ punas tad ālayavijñānam ekam abhinnam āsaṃsāram anuvartate
uta saṃtānena
na hi tad ekam abhinnam anuvartate kṣaṇikatvāt
kiṃ tarhi
tac ca vartate srotasaughavat
But does that store-consciousness continue through saṃsāra as one undivided thing, or as a continuum? It does not continue as one undivided thing, because it is momentary. What, then? It proceeds as a stream, torrent-like.