Verse 464-465

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

रूपत्वाद्याश्रयाः सर्वे ये च तेषां समाश्रयाः ।
ये च तद्विषयाः केचिज्जायन्ते प्रत्ययास्तथा ॥ ४६४ ॥
उत्पादानन्तरं ध्वंसभाजो नैव भवन्ति ते ।
प्रमेयत्वाभिधेयत्वहेतुतः खारविन्दवत् ॥ ४६५ ॥

rūpatvādyāśrayāḥ sarve ye ca teṣāṃ samāśrayāḥ |
ye ca tadviṣayāḥ kecijjāyante pratyayāstathā || 464 ||
utpādānantaraṃ dhvaṃsabhājo naiva bhavanti te |
prameyatvābhidheyatvahetutaḥ khāravindavat || 465 ||

“All those things that are the substrata of colour, etc.,—and the substrata of these things,—as also the cognitions that appear in regard to these,—all these are not, like the sky-lotus, liable to destruction immediately on coming into existence,—because they are cognisable and expressible.”—(464-465)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

The following is an argument put forward by Bhāvivikta:—“The substrata of Universals like ‘Colour’, the substrata of those substrata, and the particular Cognitions of all these,—in the form of Perception, Inference, Analogical Cognition, Verbal Cognition, Remembrance, Recognition, Mystic Vision, Doubt, Wrong Cognition, Representative Cognition, Dream, and Dream-end,—all these cannot be liable to destruction immediately on coming into existence,—because they are spoken of by such verbal expressions as—‘knowable’, ‘rightly cognisable’, ‘expressible’, ‘either existing or non-existing’, ‘not characterised by cognitions whose object is something different from Being and Non-being’, ‘not apprehensible by cognitions whose objects are non-apprehensible’, ‘not expressible by words which are inexpressive’, ‘expressible by such words as are the products of sounds produced by the conjunction and disjunction of homogeneous and heterogeneous substances’,—like ‘Previous Negation’ and such things.”

‘Substrata of Universals like Colour’, etc. are the Colour, etc. themselves.—‘The substrata of these substrata’.—What are these?—Such things as the Jar, (which are the substrata of Colour, etc.).—‘Mystic vision’,—perception by mystics.—The others have been explained before.—‘Either existence or non-existence’—i.e. Being or Non-being.—Inasmuch as there is nong that is ‘neither Being nor Non-being’, there can be no cognition of which that could be the object; and its ‘non-characterisation’ follows from its very non-existence.—Similarly, the apprehension of an inapprehensible object being impossible, inapprehensibility by such apprehension follows as a matter of course.—Similarly inexpressibility by words which are inexpressible also follows from the fact that such words are meaningless.—

‘Homogeneous things’ are substances, like the lips, teeth and so forth, all these having the common character of being products; ‘heterogeneous things’ are Ākāśa and the rest; the mutual conjunction and disjunction of these homogeneous and heterogeneous substances produce the first Sound, and this first Sound brings about, in due succession, its product in the shape of the Sound that reaches the Ear; and it is by this Sound that things are expressed.—The process of sound-production, according to these people, is as follows:—The initial sound arises from Conjunction and Disjunction; thence proceed other sound waves, in the manner of the filaments of the Kadamba fiower; that Sound which reaches the Ākāśa in the Ear, that alone is heard, not any other.”

This entire set of reasonings is set forth in the following:—[see verses 464-465 above]

The two reasons ‘cognisability’ and ‘expressibility’ have been mentioned by way of illustration; the other reasons also are meant to be applicable.—

‘Khārabinda’—is the ‘arabinda’, Lotus, in ‘kha’, the Sky,—i.e. the ‘Sky-lotus’,—(464-465)