Alamban Pariksha

Author(s): Dinnaga, Dharmapala, N Aiyaswami Shastri
Publisher: Adyar Library

Page 70

46
ĀLAMBANAPARĪKSĀ
4c. If [the opponent says that] the perception differs in accordance with differences in the forms of the pot and others ;
If you think that the parts of the pot, etc. neck, etc. (and that of the cup] are different, whereby these differentiating elements differentiate their respective cognitions. True, this differentiating element exists in the pot, etc.
4d-5a. But it never exists in the atoms which exist in substance, because the atoms are absolutely identical in their dimensions ?.
Though” the atoms are different in substance, there exists absolutely no distinction in their atomic size " (pārimandalya).
equally atoms either many or a few in other cases; therefore there exists a distinction (vis'eşa) of perception made by “many" or "a few".
The author replies : The distinction in the perception (buddhivises a) is not capable of being made by “a few,” or “many": for though in the vase there are many atoms and (a few] in the cup, however there is, when the question is the character of atoms, no difference which exists in itself. Therefore it will happen that in the case of numerous atoms, one will have a large vessel, and in the case of a few atoms, one will have a small one; but it will not happen that in the same state of combination the perception of the vase will arise in the case where there are many atoms, and that the perception of the cup will arise in the case where there are a few.
21 The difference is not found any longer in what is called the exiguous sphericity (pārimāndalya) of atoms.
The opponent asks : Is it not that the atoms of the vase are precisely of one substance (dravya) other (than the cup), and that the atoms of the cup are also of one substance other (than the vase]? And how can one say that there is no difference in measure ? The author replies the following.
23 The difference in form does not reside in the atoms. Just as whatever they may be and however numerous they may be, they all exist in the substance, so whatever may be their measures, the atoms are all of an exiguous sphericity, and this sphericity of the atoms is