Verse 3176-3177

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

एतदक्षममाणो यः पौरुषेयागमान्तरात् ।
अतीन्द्रियार्थविज्ञानं बुद्धादेरपि मन्यते ॥ ३१७६ ॥
तस्य तेनैव तुल्यत्वात्त्वद्वाक्यस्याप्रमाणता ।
पुरुषस्य च वक्तव्या पूर्वोक्तैरेव हेतुभिः ॥ ३१७७ ॥

etadakṣamamāṇo yaḥ pauruṣeyāgamāntarāt |
atīndriyārthavijñānaṃ buddhāderapi manyate || 3176 ||
tasya tenaiva tulyatvāttvadvākyasyāpramāṇatā |
puruṣasya ca vaktavyā pūrvoktaireva hetubhiḥ || 3177 ||

“If some one, not accepting the above, thinks that in the case of Buddha and others the knowledge of super-sensuous things has been derived from the words of other men,—then, he should assert the unreliability of the words of those other men, on the ground of their standing on the same footing as those words (of Buddha);—and the unreliability of this latter should be asserted on the basis of the reasons previously indicated.”—(3176-3177)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

The following might be urged—It is not through the Eternal Word alone that all men know things; for instance, Śakya-Muni (Buddha) knows things from the words of sages like Kanaka, Kāśyapa and the like; and others know them from His words.

The answer to this is as follows:—[see verses 3176-3177 above]

‘This’—what has been just said,—‘He alone knows such things who knows them through the Eternal Word’;—one who does not accept this and thinks that the Buddhist and others do not know all things through the Eternal Word, but through the word uttered by other Persons; e.g. Buddha knows them through the scriptures composed by other persons, like Kanaka, Kāśyapa and others;—one who makes this assertion should assert the unreliability of those words—i.e. of the words of those other persons; because they stand on the same footing as the words of the person who has been seen by one and who is held to be omniscient.—He should also assert the unreliability of the man,—the composer of the scripture himself,—why?—because of the Reasons adduced before—such as ‘being cognisable’ and the rest.—(3176-3177)