Verse 687

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

स्थितस्थापकरूपस्तु न युक्तः क्षणभङ्गतः ।
स्थितार्थासम्भवाद्भावे ताद्रूप्यादेव संस्थितिः ॥ ६८७ ॥

sthitasthāpakarūpastu na yuktaḥ kṣaṇabhaṅgataḥ |
sthitārthāsambhavādbhāve tādrūpyādeva saṃsthitiḥ || 687 ||

There can be no such quality as ‘elasticity’, because things are in a ‘perpetual flux’, and hence nothing can be lasting (sthita); if there were any such thing, it should continue to exist in that same form.—(687)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

The following Text points out objections against the third kind of Momentum (i.e. Elasticity);—[see verse 687 above]

[The name of this Quality appears throughout in this work in the form ‘Sthitasthāpaka’, though the form in which it is known from the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika books is ‘Sthitisthāpaka’. That the former form is not an error of the copyist or the printer is clear from this Text, where the first term in the compound is clearly stated to be ‘sthita’.]

That is to say, the ‘Sthita’, ‘lasting’, thing, of which this Quality is said to be the ‘Sthāpaha’, ‘re-establisher’,—is that thing by itself not-lasting? Or is it by itself lasting? Only these two alternatives are possible.—If it is not-lasting, then as in a moment it will have ceased to exist, what would be there which the Quality in question would re-establish? On the other hand, if it is, by itself, lasting,—then, if the thing in question would be existent,—then, as all existing things continue to exist in their own form,—i.e. without deviating from it,—theng would continue in the same form; and in that case, what would be the need for assuming a ‘re-establisher’ of it, which would have nothing to do?—(687)