"It should not, however, be seen in that way,"


  Anticipating that his diciple Shariputra
is thinking the Dharma-speaking birds in
Sukhavati are beings that have fallen to be
animals due to offenses, Sakyamuni Buddha
now says na punar evam drastavyam, "it
shauld not, however, be seen in that way."
Three indeclinable words are used: na
"not," punar "again/however," and evam "in
that way/thus." drastavyam is the gerundive
(verbal adjective) formed from root û drs-
"see," plus the gerundive suffix -tavya.

    When û drs- and -tavya are combined,
certain sound changes take place (sandhi).
The vowel r changes to ra, and s become s,
influencing t to be pronounced t (retroflex
with the tongue curled back to the roof of
the mouth). The resulting gerundive drastavya
is then inflecting, that is, it adds
an ending to express case (here nominative),
number (here singular) and gender (here
neuter), for this is an impersonal construction,
equivalent to "it should be seen/it
is to be seen" in English. Note that Sanskrit
does not need to express the words
"it.." be/it is (asti).

  The idea of obligation -- "should be seen/
to be seen" -- is given by the gerundive
suffix -tavya in Sanskrit. Here the birds
situation is not to be seen, should not be
seen evam "in that way." That is, no one
should look upon those birds as having
fallen to animal birth. Why not?