Verse 382

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

भावध्वंसात्मनश्चैवं नाशस्यासत्त्वमिष्यते ।
वस्तुरूपवियोगेन न भावाभावरूपतः ॥ ३८२ ॥

bhāvadhvaṃsātmanaścaivaṃ nāśasyāsattvamiṣyate |
vasturūpaviyogena na bhāvābhāvarūpataḥ || 382 ||

Thus it is that the existence of any ‘destruction of things’ of the nature of ‘annihilation’ is not admitted; because the ‘destruction of a thing’ consists in the dissociation of a particular form, and not in the negation of its existence.—(382)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

As regards the argument put forward above (under Text 371)—‘If Destruction were non-existent, all things would be eternal’,—it is answered in the following—[see verse 382 above]

Thus:—because it is really of the nature of the dissociation of a particular form of the Thing,—and it is not of the nature of the negation of the Thing due to the cessation of the existence of the nature of the Thing itself,

Why then should our doctrine involve the absurdity of all things being eternal? If the ‘Destruction of things’, in the form of the negation of their character, were non-existent, then alone thengs would be eternal; as a matter of fact, however, the Destruction in the shape of the negation of character, though itself negative in character, is actually there;—how then could the things be eternal?

As for the notion of all properties being destructible,—the basis for this has been already explained.—(382)