Alamban Pariksha

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

Page 97

DHARMAPALA'S COMMENTARY
out to the identity between the object and its consciousness.
[31] "Some Acaryas hold that the combined form of atoms (sañcitakara) is the cause of consciousness".
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In each atom there exists the combined form. That alone is perceived as the gross form in proportion to the number of atoms. That combined form, too, is real and produces the consciousness of the form of its self; because it exists in substance.
"(
It becomes the actual object ";
because it fulfils the said two conditions. This (combined form) is already an accomplished fact. Hence no question arises whether it is the same as the atom itself or not so.
"All things are possessed of many forms".
These atoms themselves are regarded as possessed of atomic form as well as combined form. How can a single element be described to possess two forms? All things which are collocations of material elements are considered to be of four great elements, earth, etc. as their essence, and have many forms. They are naturally possessed of distinct forces [each]. [For example,] the image of the blue and other colours existing in a substance-element and the same existing in a senseorgan are known to be quite different [from each other]. In the atom, among many forms "there also exists the combined form."