Verse 2489

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

द्रुतमध्यादिभेदाद्धि नान्यः शब्दोऽवभासते ।
अतद्रूपे च ताद्रूप्यज्ञानं नाविषयं कथम् ॥ २४८९ ॥

drutamadhyādibhedāddhi nānyaḥ śabdo'vabhāsate |
atadrūpe ca tādrūpyajñānaṃ nāviṣayaṃ katham || 2489 ||

Under the variations of ‘fast’, ‘middling’ and ‘slow’,—the word-sound itself does not appear as different. under the circumstances, when the cognition envisages something in a form that does not belong to it,—why should not this cognition be objectless?—(2489)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

The following might be urged—“Even if the Word-sound is not the objective of the Cognition, why should the cognition be baseless (without an object)?”

The answer to this is as follows:—[see verse 2489 above]

The Cognition that appears is in the form of ‘fast’, ‘medium’ and ‘slow’;—and the Word-Sound cannot have the ‘fast’ and other forms; because being eternal and all-pervading, it must have only one form;—there is nothing else that could have the ‘fast’ and other forms, and appear in the Cognition;—hence there being no real object of the said exact form, the Cognition is clearly objectless.—(2489)