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Taraavatha Sutra
In the present, happiness and comfort cannot be fully ascribed, and thus it cannot be called prosperity. Similarly, one who serves their parents in this life is considered a son; however, one who is not currently present, whether in the past or future, is not regarded as a son at all. These thoughts are placed solely within the context of the present.
When the intellect, which delves deeply into thoughts, prepares to uncover the past and future, it further advances to expose another layer. Therefore, sometimes it perceives that which is accepted as distinct from the present is only that which is separate from the past and the future. Why then should the meanings of words with different genders, tenses, numbers, cases, and prefixes not be considered different? Just as there is no singular entity that exists uniformly across all three times, but the entity at present is the only existing one, so too, the objects referred to by words of different genders, numbers, and tenses may also differ from one another. Thus, by such reasoning, the intellect accepts the distinctions in meanings based on time and gender. For example, in the scriptures, there is a statement that "there was a city named Rajagriha." This sentence is superficially understood to mean that the city existed in the past but does not exist now. However, in reality, it persists even in the writer's time. Now, if it exists in the present, what is the purpose of saying it "was"? That is the question to be answered.