Tattva Sangraha Vol 1

SR No.: 007608
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kamlashila, Ganganatha Jha
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra
Publication Year: 1937
Total Pages: 753
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 42 MB

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TATTVASANGRAHA; CHAPTER VII,
TEXT (348) GREAT MEN HAVE SUCCESSFULLY EXPLAINED ALL THOSE CASES WHERE THERE IS CONFLICT BETWEEN SCRIPTURE ' AND THE REAL STATE OF THINGS. IN FACT THE DIVERSE TEACHINGS OF THE MEROIFUL ONE ARE FOR THE PURPOSE OF REBUTTING
UNBELIEF ' (Nastikya).-(348)
COMMENTARY If there were such an object as the Pudgala', then alone could it have deserved an explanation as to whether it is different or non-different (like other things); as a matter of fact, however, the object itself has not been proved; how then could its character be explained ? An absolute non-entity, as the Hare's horn' can have no sharpness or other properties, which could be explained. Hence while propounding the notion that the Pudgala has only an ideal imaginary) existence, the Blessed Lord said it has not been explained
He did not declare straight away that it does not exist ', because the question had not been asked about the nature of the object itself (the question having been only about ita difference or non-difference from the Body]
Or it may be that, even though the thing had a merely ideal'existence, He wished to avoid the extreme view that it does not exist ';in consideraLion of the welfare of such disciples as were not yet fit for receving the extreme Doctrina of the Void (Nihilism). He did not say that the Soul or Pudgala does not exist. It has been this declared : Noting the difference between the Tusker and the Tusk, and the destruction of Actions, the Jinas propound the Dharma,-on the analogy of the Tigress' Oub (?). In this way have Vasubandhu and other teachers succeeded in disclosing the real import of the teachings in such works as the Koshaparamarthasaptati aud the rest ; hence it should be learnt from those works. In the present context the details are not written down for fear of becoming too prolix.
"If that is so "-says the opponent "how do you construe the assertion that there is existence which proves it'?"
The answer is for the purpose of rebutting unbelief etc. etc. There are divine teachings of the Merciful One which speak of sattua' and 'astitva (Existence), which are not incompatible (with the Buddhist doctrine) this has to be taken as understood. The mental series ' in which the 'iden of existence appears, it is with reference to the non-cessation (continuity) of hal series, that the Blessed Lord has said there is existence'. If he had not dono so, then there would be an idea that even those Impressions do not exist in the cause-effect-chain of whose moments there has been no break,- which would mean that things of the other world' do not exist, and this would demolish the whole idea of the other world, and the disciples would become inclined to unbelief. The form Nästikya' here is used in the old sense of the idea that there is no such thing as the Soul' or the other worla.')-(348)