________________
ETERNITY OR OTHERWISE OF A WORD
151
against the Sānkhya view : "On this view an emanation from the auditory organ reaches the place where there exists the word to be heard; there this word produces a due transformation in this 'emanation and is heard as a result thereof.38 Here too it seems inconceivable why the 'emanation' in question should ever be stopped anyway from reaching anywhere.39 And curiously, this view entails the absurdity that a word should be heard better when the wind is blowing towards the word and away from the ear rather than vice versa.”+0 Similarly, the following criticism is urged against the Jaina view : "On this view a word is made up of subtle physical particles which proceed from the speaker and reach upto the hearer." Here it is inconceivable as to what sort of physical particles are being spoken of, how they go to make up a word, why they are not stopped by so many sorts of rough obstacles; how they are received by another man's ear when one man's ear has already received them.''42 Lastly, the Buddhist view is criticised on the simple ground that since according to it an ear hears a word without coming in contact with this word it is inconceivable why an ear should not hear all the words that are there to be heard." Against these rival views is counterposed the following Mimāṁsā view++ ? "The desire to speak produces an effort which sends out air from within the speaker's abdomen; this air—an object of perception or of inference—moving about in all directions reaches the hearer's auditory organ which is of the form of sky confined to the ear concerned and the becalmed air already present in which is bestirred by the incoming air in question; hence is generated in this auditory organ the capacity to hear the word concerned." Depending on the intensity of the effort concerned the word is heard as loud or slow.46 Since the air thus moving about possesses a definite momentum, it does not proceed beyond a certain limit; since it is something tangible it is checked by an obstacle like a wall etc.41 Whatever be the spot from which this air is coming is falsely supposed by the speaker to be the sole spot of the word itself.18 As for the air propagated when conch-shell is blown it makes manifest a word not of the from of a letter; or since there exists no word satisfying this description we might say that the air in question makes manifest the universal 'wordness'.Towards the end a passing reference is made to the view upheld by the Siksā-specialists, a view
