न चाऽसत्त्वमचेत्यायाश्चितो वाचाऽपि सिद्ध्यति ॥ ८३ ॥
na cā’sattvamacētyāyāścitō vācā’pi siddhyati || 83 ||
Translation
And the non-being of awareness, which is beyond the knowable, is not established even by words.
Word by word
- na
- not
- ca
- and
- asattvam
- the non-being
- acētyāyāś
- (acetyāyāḥ) which is beyond the knowable
- citō
- (citaḥ) of awareness
- vācā
- by words
- api
- even
- siddhyati
- is established
Meaning
A single half-line. The commentary meets a doubt: if the knowable (the world) is unreal, will not awareness also be unreal, since awareness is not apart from the knowable, its own form? It answers: the non-being of awareness cannot be established even by speech, for awareness is established by experience, and against experience speech is no means of knowledge. To say "there is no awareness" one must be aware.