Verse 3190

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

असर्वज्ञप्रणीतात्तु वचनान्मूलवर्जितात् ।
सर्वज्ञमवगच्छन्तः स्ववाक्यात्किं न जाय(न ?)ते ॥ ३१९० ॥

asarvajñapraṇītāttu vacanānmūlavarjitāt |
sarvajñamavagacchantaḥ svavākyātkiṃ na jāya(na ?)te || 3190 ||

“When people admit of the omniscient person on the basis of the baseless assertions of persons who are not omniscient, why cannot they derive the same knowledge from their own words?”—(3190)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

The following might be urged—The existence of the Omniscient Person is accepted on the basis of the words of such men as Śrāvaka-Acchāriputra (?), who says—‘This worthy scion of the Śākya-race is omniscient’.

The answer to this is as follows:—[see verse 3190 above]

The assertion of men whose reliability has not been demonstrated does not differ from one’s own assertion; hence there is no reason why the Buddhists should not derive their knowledge of the Omniscient Person from their own words. We see no reason—except stupidity—why they should seek to know it from the words of other persons.—(3190)