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98: śramana, Vol 64, No. III, July-Sept. 2013
The lower level vaikhari vāc, the most external and differential, fulfilling communication functions in the relation speaker-listener, is constituted of articulated words and sentences composed of them. That what makes functioning of articulation and hearing organ according to a destination possible -producing and a perception of sound -[ is breath (prāņa). Here, at this level, individual characteristics of speech appears (such as: volume, tone and accent) and all linguistic categories.
The essence and a content of sentence is not in uttered words, but it exists at higher and deeper level paśyanti vāc ("a perceiving and seeing speech") constituting a potential source of speech. At this very stage a process of differentiating a word and its meaning is stopped. There is no temporal consequence, because the process of the realization of the act of speech has not yet begun. The speech is identified with the process of thinking. The term paśyanti concerns a realization of the mystic insight, pure consciousness and a content of speech itselfl. Here a word, a speech and the phenomenal reality (designation) construct one totality and a fulfillment of a creative speech becomes possible - a creative mental act (dhi) is identified with the object. Between those two levels there is the third"middle" (madhyamā vāc) phase of conscious mental construction, strictly connected with functions of the intellect (buddhi)62. The speech transforms itself into dynamic mental process, preceding the act of speech and following the hearing. Bounded with a thing or an idea it achieves the state of mental objectification - the inner speech. This intermediate point is situated between the source of thought and its external realization. All linguistic categories related to the language and a mechanism of speaking receive hidden and latent form. The proceeding of differentiating at the central position depends on language in which it becomes realized. A word is formed and also the meaning related to it and a syntax of utterance as well. Bharthari considers those three levels as three main phases leading to the realization of each speech. There are other minor stages between them. The fourth and the higher peak of speech (parā vāc) is an container and source of uttering, “the ocean of primary waters”, homogeneous and uniform chaos and creative potentiality - the Speech, which exists in a speaker as their inmost essence (ātman) called a mighty bul one desires to connect with 4.
The language is a core of consciousness and means to all knowledge. When we talk about a speech (vāk) or a word (sabda) we should understand by that a transmission or revelation of a meaning and a commonly understood reference to a notional and conceptual formation, formulated of conclusions, which can exist only at two lower levels of language (vaikhari i madhyamā). For a meaning is described as internally connected with a consciousness it enables an activity of direct intuition (pratibhà) or common cognition and hence become logically possible at all levels of thought and other sounds, as those of animals. The mystic experience of language reveals when individual identifies themselves with a movement towards the origin®.
Bharthari and the Jainas The contribution of Bhartshari's thought was significant, especially his concept of word as an
