Verse 3340

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

एतच्च सुगतस्येष्टमादौ नैरात्म्यकीर्त्तनात् ।
सर्वतीर्थकृतां तस्मात्स्थितो मूर्ध्नि तथागतः ॥ ३३४० ॥

etacca sugatasyeṣṭamādau nairātmyakīrttanāt |
sarvatīrthakṛtāṃ tasmātsthito mūrdhni tathāgataḥ || 3340 ||

In fact, this (omniscience) that has been proved is that of Buddha himself, as it is he who, at the very outset, expounded the doctrine of ‘no-soul’. That is why he stands at the head of all philosophers.—(3340)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

The following might be urged—“It may be that Omniscience in general has been proved; yet the Omniscience of Buddha has not been proved”.

The answer to this is as follows:—[see verse 3340 above]

The said omniscience has been proved really as belonging to Buddha, not to Kapila and others.—“Why”?—Because at the very outset, it was He who expounded the doctrine of ‘No-soul’.

What is meant is as follows:—By pointing out that all things are included among the five ‘Thought Phases’, Buddha taught, at the very outset, that there is ‘No-soul’.—It is this same Teacher whose existence is proved by the Inferential Indicative in the shape of the teaching of ‘Soul-less-ness’; and it is this Person who is called by us ‘Sugata’ (Buddha). Through this teaching of His, complete knowledge of all things, obtainable and discardable, along with the means of obtaining and discarding them, becomes secured. Hence it is through His connection with this complete knowledge that He becomes recognised as omniscient and reliable; hence it is only right and proper that His existence should be proved by persons who desire to understand His teachings. His Omniscience does not rest upon His knowledge of such things as the number of insects in the world; though it is proved that the knowledge of such things also is possible for Him; as His knowledge relates to the Truth relating to all things and is lasting. For instance, by the teaching of the doctrine of ‘No-soul’,—which is in full accordance with Reason and proofs—His knowledge becomes established—by the teaching that this ‘Soul-less-ness’ has always been there and will always be there. He has shown that His knowledge of things is lasting;—specially because His teachings relating to the three kinds of Pain and allied things are in agreement with all the nine sections of the scriptures and with the teaching of the ‘Three Paths—As He has made known the ‘Four Truths’ by various means, it is inferred from this that He knows all things; specially as any incapacity there might have been there to comprehend all things has been dispelled. In fact, no one could expound such teachings, who did not know all the good and bad points of things and was not able to expound them. Nor can it be right to assert that “He has expounded these teachings after having learnt it from the Veda; as it has been shown that the Veda is the work of a human being.

From all this we conclude that the Blessed Lord stands at the head of all Philosophers, because of the superiority of His knowledge of things.—(3340)

For this same reason there can be no equality between the Blessed Lord of the superior knowledge and any one else. This is what is pointed out in the following:—[see verse 3341-3342 next]