{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/sbe48/sbe48010.htm","path":"hin/sbe48/sbe48010.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48010.htm","text":"As to sound (speech; sabda) it is specially apparent that it possesses the power of denoting only such things as are affected with difference. Speech operates with words and sentences. Now a word (pada) originates from the combination of a radical element and a suffix, and as these two elements have different meanings it necessarily follows that the word itself can convey only a sense affected with difference. And further, the plurality of words is based on plurality of meanings; the sentence therefore which is an aggregate of words expresses some special combination of things (meanings of words), and hence has no power to\ndenote a thing devoid of all difference.--The conclusion is that sound cannot be a means of knowledge for a thing devoid of all difference.","title":"SBE 48: The Vedanta-Sutras with commentary by Ramanuja, George Thibaut, tr.: First P\u00e2da: Sabda proves difference","type":"page"}