Verse 438

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

नियताचिन्त्यशक्तीनि वस्तूनीह प्रतिक्षणम् ।
भवन्ति नानुयोज्यानि दहने दाहशक्तिवत् ॥ ४३८ ॥

niyatācintyaśaktīni vastūnīha pratikṣaṇam |
bhavanti nānuyojyāni dahane dāhaśaktivat || 438 ||

Every moment, entities go on coming into existence, with definite undefinable potentialities, and no objection can be taken to them,—just as to the fire’s capacity to burn.—(438)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

The nature of things cannot be criticised (or objected to); because all diversity of the nature of things comes out of a series of ‘ideas’ bringing the things into existence; like the ‘burning capacity’ of fire; as a matter of fact, they come into existence every moment, as endowed with diverse potentialities, through the functioning of the series of ideas coming one after the other. Hence, even though, for some reason, they are cognised as being similar in form, through the presence of some similarity,—yet, in reality, their nature is entirely different. That is the reason why only one entity becomes the cause of only one other entity, and not everything of everything. Hence there is no force in the objection urged.

‘Bhavanti’, ‘go on coming into existence’,—i.e. are produced.—(438)