Verse 951

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

अभावगम्यरूपे च न विशेष्येऽस्ति वस्तुता ।
विशेषितमपोहेन वस्तु वाच्यं न तेऽस्त्यतः ॥ ९५१ ॥

abhāvagamyarūpe ca na viśeṣye'sti vastutā |
viśeṣitamapohena vastu vācyaṃ na te'styataḥ || 951 ||

“If the qualified thing is cognisable in the form of negation, then it cannot be an entity; consequently for you, there can be no entity that could be denoted by words as qualified by Apoha.”—[Ślokavārtika-Apoha 91]—(951)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

It might be argued that—‘the Apoha does colour the Qualified Entity with its own Cognition (Idea)’.

The answer to that is as follows:—[see verse 951 above]

‘Negation’—i.e. the Apoha;—‘cognisable in the form’—i.e. cognised as being of the same form as;—if the Qualified thing has its character such that it is cognisable in the form of negation;—i.e. if the thing is cognised in the form of Negation,—then it ceases to be a positive Entity; as the ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ are contradictory terms.

The argument is summed up in the words—‘Consequently, for you, etc. etc.’.—(951)