Verse 301-302

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

बुद्धिमत्त्वात्प्रधानस्य सर्वमस्याविरोधि चेत् ।
बुद्धिमत्त्वेन तु प्राप्तं चैतन्यं पुरुषेष्विव ॥ ३०१ ॥
बुद्धिरध्यवसायो हि संवित्संवेदनं तथा ।
संवित्तिश्चेतना चेति सर्वं चैतन्यवाचकम् ॥ ३०२ ॥

buddhimattvātpradhānasya sarvamasyāvirodhi cet |
buddhimattvena tu prāptaṃ caitanyaṃ puruṣeṣviva || 301 ||
buddhiradhyavasāyo hi saṃvitsaṃvedanaṃ tathā |
saṃvittiścetanā ceti sarvaṃ caitanyavācakam || 302 ||

If it be argued that—“inasmuch as primordial matter is equipped with cosmic intellect, all this cannot be incompatible with its nature”,—then, on the ground of its being equipped with intellect, it would have to be possessed of sentience also,—like the sentience in spirits. because ‘intellect’, ‘volition’, ‘consciousness’, ‘feeling’, ‘knowing’,—all this is expressive of sentience.—(301-302)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

‘All this’—i.e. acting in accordance with the Spirit’s ‘desire to see’ and the rest;—‘its nature’—its character of Primordial Matter.—What is meant is this—“Even though Primordial Matter is not of the nature of Sentience, yet it is equipped with Cosmic Intellect which is of the nature of ‘determination’,—and thus it can know of the Spirit’s ‘desire to know’ etc., and act accordingly; so that there is no incongruity at all”.

The answer to this is that on the ground of its being equipped with Intellect, etc. etc. That is to say, if it is admitted that Primordial Matter is equipped with Intellect, then it should have to be regarded as endowed with Sentience also, like the Spirit; as ‘Buddhi’ (Intellect) etc. are only so many synonyms of ‘Sentience’, For instance, that which is of the nature of light and has its form known by itself and shines independently of all else, is ‘Sentience and this character is present in Buddhi (Intellect) also; why then should this latter not be the same as Sentience? specially as apart from Intellect, we do not perceive any other form of Sentience, by virtue of which this distinct nature could be attributed to Spirit.—(301-302)