Verse 144

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

अथाविभागमेवेदं ब्रह्मतत्त्वं सदा स्थितम् ।
अविद्योपप्लवाल्लोको विचित्रं त्वभिमन्यचे ॥ १४४ ॥

athāvibhāgamevedaṃ brahmatattvaṃ sadā sthitam |
avidyopaplavālloko vicitraṃ tvabhimanyace || 144 ||

If it be held that—“Brahman in its essence remains ever undifferentiated; it is only under disturbance due to ignorance that people regard it as diverse”.—(144)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

It has been urged (under Text 136) that “all things would occupy the same point in space and would be cognised in one and the same form”;—the following Text raises an objection from the point of view of the other party:—[see verse 144 above]

The following view might be urged by the Opponent:—“The one Principle of Brahman remains always undifferentiated,—essentially unmodified in reality, there is no modification of It; what happens is that people having their minds and eyes clouded by the darkness of Ignorance, regard It as diverse, in such forms as the Blue and the like. This has been thus declared:—‘Even though Ākāśa (Space) is pure, yet obsessed by darkness, people come to regard it as limited and made up of diversified parts; in the same manner, though Brahman is immortal and unmodifiable, yet It appears to be sullied by Nescience and hence diversely modified’,—Under the circumstances, there would be no such absurdity as all things occupying the same point in Space; because in reality all things are non-entities, therefore there would be diversity in their cognitions also,—the diversity being due to the oscillations of Nescience”.—(144)

The above argument is answered by the following Texts:—[see verse 145 next]