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Yoga-sūtra with Vyāsa's bhāṣya · 1.26
pūrveṣām api guruḥ kālenānavacchedāt
Translation. Even of the former teachers, he is the teacher (guru), because of his non-delimitation (anavaccheda) by time.
Grammar check: 5 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 |
|---|
| pūrveṣām | pūrva | pass |
| api | api | pass |
| guruḥ | guru | pass |
| kālena | kāla | pass |
| anavacchedāt | anavaccheda | 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.
Take pūrveṣām substantivally as ‘of the former teachers,’ not generically as ‘of former persons or things.’→ of the former teachers
ys [1]pūrve hi guravaḥ kālenāvacchidyante.
For the former ones are teachers who are delimited by time.
Construe api with pūrveṣām in the inclusive-emphatic sense ‘even of,’ rather than as a sentence-level ‘also.’→ even of the former teachers
ys [2]yatrāvacchedārthena kālo nopāvartate sa eṣa pūrveṣām api guruḥ.
Where time does not come into operation for the purpose of delimitation, that very one is the teacher even of the former teachers.
Translate guruḥ relationally and predicatively as ‘teacher,’ with the unexpressed subject represented in English as ‘he.’→ he is the teacher (guru)
ys [1, 2]pūrve hi guravaḥ kālenāvacchidyante.
yatrāvacchedārthena kālo nopāvartate sa eṣa pūrveṣām api guruḥ.
For the former ones are teachers who are delimited by time. Where time does not come into operation for the purpose of delimitation, that very one is the teacher even of the former teachers.
Construe kālena as the instrumental agent of delimitation—‘by time’—rather than merely as an adverbial ‘in time.’→ by time
ys [1, 2]pūrve hi guravaḥ kālenāvacchidyante.
yatrāvacchedārthena kālo nopāvartate sa eṣa pūrveṣām api guruḥ.
For the former teachers are delimited by time. Where time does not come into operation for the purpose of delimitation, that very one is the teacher even of the former teachers.
Understand anavaccheda as the absence of temporal delimitation and its ablative as causal: ‘because of his non-delimitation.’→ because of his non-delimitation by time
ys [1, 2]pūrve hi guravaḥ kālenāvacchidyante.
yatrāvacchedārthena kālo nopāvartate sa eṣa pūrveṣām api guruḥ.
For the former teachers are delimited by time. Where time does not come into operation for the purpose of delimitation, that very one is the teacher even of the former teachers.
Allow ‘former teachers’ to include teachers associated with prior creations, rather than restricting the expression to predecessors within the present creation.→ teachers belonging also to earlier creations
ys [3]yathāsya sargasyādau prakarṣagatyā siddhas tathātikrāntasargādiṣv api pratyetavyaḥ.
Just as he is established through surpassing excellence at the beginning of this creation, so he is also to be understood at the beginnings of past creations.
Vyāsa's commentary on this unit
1pūrve hi guravaḥ kālenāvacchidyante.
2yatrāvacchedārthena kālo nopāvartate sa eṣa pūrveṣām api guruḥ.
3yathāsya sargasyādau prakarṣagatyā siddhas tathātikrāntasargādiṣv api pratyetavyaḥ.
41.26
5tasya vācakaḥ praṇavaḥ