Hence we conclude that the exposition of words is the direct end of the rules of grammar, but its indirect end is the preservation, &c., of the Veda. Hence it has been said by the worshipful author of the great Commentary [quoting a Várttika], "the end (or motive) is preservation, inference, scripture, facility, and assurance."[319] Moreover prosperity arises from the employment of a correct word; thus Kátyáyana has said, "There is prosperity in the employment of a word according to the śástra; it is equal to the words of the Veda itself." Others also have said that "a single word thoroughly understood and rightly used becomes in Swarga the desire-milking cow." Thus (they say)—
"They proceed to heaven, with every desired happiness, in well-yoked chariots of harnessed speech;
"But those who use such false forms as achíkramata must trudge thither on foot."[320]
Nor need you ask "how can an irrational word possess such power?" since we have revelation declaring that it is like to the great god. For the Śruti says, "Four are its horns, three its feet, two its heads, and seven its hands,—roars loudly the threefold-bound bull, the great god enters mortals" (Rig-Veda, iv. 58, 3). The great commentator thus explains it:—The "four horns" are the four kinds of words—nouns, verbs, prepositions, and particles; its "three feet" mean the three times, past, present, and future, expressed by the tense-affixes, laṭ, &c.; the "two heads," the eternal and temporary (or produced) words, distinguished as the "manifested" and the "manifester;" its "seven hands" are the seven case affixes, including the conjugational terminations; "threefold bound," as enclosed in the three organs—the chest, the throat, and the head. The metaphor "bull" (vṛishabha) is applied from its pouring forth (varshaṇa), i.e., from its giving fruit when used with knowledge. "Loudly roars," i.e., utters sound, for the root ru means "sound;" here by the word "sound" developed speech (or language)[321] is implied; "the great god enters mortals,"—the "great god," i.e., speech,—enters mortals, i.e., men endowed with the attribute of mortality. Thus is declared the likeness [of speech][322] to the supreme Brahman.
The eternal word, called sphoṭa, without parts, and the cause of the world, is verily Brahman; thus it has been declared by Bhartṛihari in the part of his book called the Brahmakáṇḍa—
"Brahman, without beginning or end, the indestructible essence of speech,
"Which is developed in the form of things, and whence springs the creation of the world."
"But since there is a well-known twofold division of words into nouns and verbs, how comes this fourfold division?" We reply, because this, too, is well known. Thus it has been said in the Prakírṇaka—
"Some make a twofold division of words, some a fourfold or a fivefold,
"Drawing them up from the sentences as root, affix, and the like."