Verse 2103

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

पूर्वा वेदस्य या कोटिः पौरुषेयत्वलक्षणा ।
परा विनाशरूपा च तदभावो हि नित्यता ॥ २१०३ ॥

pūrvā vedasya yā koṭiḥ pauruṣeyatvalakṣaṇā |
parā vināśarūpā ca tadabhāvo hi nityatā || 2103 ||

“The ‘first end’ of the Veda consists in the idea of its being the work of an author,—and the ‘other end’ consists in its being destroyed; and the negation of these (two ends) means ‘eternality’.”—(2103)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

How the rejection of the ‘two ends’ automatically proves Eternality is explained in the following:—[see verse 2103 above]

As a matter of fact, ‘Eternality’ and ‘Having the two ends’ are mutually exclusive,—one involving the negation of the other; and between two mutually exclusive ideas, the absence of one is always concomitant with the presence of the other; as has been already pointed out.—(2103)

The other party urges—If the ‘negation of the two ends’ constitutes Eternality, then it comes to this that Eternality is not a positive quality of things.

The answer to this (from the Mīmāṃsaka) is as follows:—[see verses 2104-2105 next]