back to questions
Yoga-sūtra with Vyāsa's bhāṣya · 1.16
15 tat paraṃ puruṣakhyāter guṇavaitṛṣṇyam
Translation. That higher dispassion (vairāgya) is freedom from craving (vaitṛṣṇya) for the guṇas, owing to knowledge (khyāti) of Puruṣa.
Grammar check: 4 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 |
|---|
| tat | tad | pass |
| param | para | pass |
| puruṣakhyāteḥ | puruṣakhyāti | pass |
| guṇavaitṛṣṇyam | guṇavaitṛṣṇya | pass |
How the commentary settled it
Where the verse alone is ambiguous, the reading follows Vyāsa's commentary; the deciding lines are quoted below each decision.
Construe tat param with an understood vairāgyam: ‘that higher dispassion,’ rather than treating tat param as an isolated statement or taking para with puruṣa.→ The commentary explicitly calls the pair vairāgya and then identifies the latter member; accordingly, neuter tat and param agree with understood vairāgyam.
ys [2, 3]tad dvayaṃ vairāgyam. tatra yad uttaraṃ taj jñānaprasādamātram.
That twofold state is dispassion. Of these, the latter is nothing but lucidity of knowledge.
Analyze puruṣakhyāteḥ as ablative singular and construe it causally: ‘owing to/from knowledge of Puruṣa.’→ Although -eḥ is formally both genitive and ablative for an i-stem feminine, the commentary’s puruṣadarśanābhyāsāt is an explicit causal ablative paraphrase. Internally, puruṣakhyāti is a tatpuruṣa meaning ‘knowledge/vision of Puruṣa,’ not fame or reputation.
ys [1]dṛṣṭānuśravikaviṣayadoṣadarśī viraktaḥ puruṣadarśanābhyāsāt tacchuddhipravivekāpyāyitabuddhir guṇebhyo vyaktāvyaktadharmakebhyo virakta iti.
The dispassionate person who sees the defects in objects seen or heard about, through repeated vision of Puruṣa, has an intellect filled by its purity and discriminative discernment and is dispassionate toward the guṇas whose properties are the manifest and the unmanifest.
Take guṇavaitṛṣṇyam as the predicate defining higher dispassion and as an objective tatpuruṣa: ‘freedom from craving for the guṇas.’→ Vaitṛṣṇya denotes dispassion or freedom from desire, as shown by the commentary’s viraktaḥ. The guṇas are technical constituents associated with the manifest and unmanifest, not merely ordinary qualities. The compound is conventionally expanded guṇeṣu vaitṛṣṇyam, while the commentary paraphrases its objective relation as guṇebhyo ... viraktaḥ.
ys [1]dṛṣṭānuśravikaviṣayadoṣadarśī viraktaḥ puruṣadarśanābhyāsāt tacchuddhipravivekāpyāyitabuddhir guṇebhyo vyaktāvyaktadharmakebhyo virakta iti.
The dispassionate person who sees the defects in objects seen or heard about, through repeated vision of Puruṣa, has an intellect filled by its purity and discriminative discernment and is dispassionate toward the guṇas whose properties are the manifest and the unmanifest.
Understand para as the higher, knowledge-based form of dispassion, not merely as spatially distant or temporally later.→ The commentary glosses the relevant member as uttara and characterizes it as jñānaprasādamātram, establishing the evaluative sense ‘higher.’
ys [3]tatra yad uttaraṃ taj jñānaprasādamātram.
Of these, the latter or higher one is nothing but lucidity of knowledge.
Vyāsa's commentary on this unit
1dṛṣṭānuśravikaviṣayadoṣadarśī viraktaḥ puruṣadarśanābhyāsāt tacchuddhipravivekāpyāyitabuddhir guṇebhyo vyaktāvyaktadharmakebhyo virakta iti.
2tad dvayaṃ vairāgyam.
3tatra yad uttaraṃ taj jñānaprasādamātram.
4yasyodaye sati yogī pratyuditakhyātir evaṃ manyate