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VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
fact that we do not perceive anything, different from structure, which could be claimed as constituting the object of the cognition that several individuals possess one and the same general form. And as our theory sufficiently accounts for the ordinary notions as to generic character, and as moreover even those who hold generic character to be something different from structure admit that there is such a thing as (common) structure, we adhere to the conclusion that generic character is nothing but structure. By 'structure' we understand special or distinctive form; and we acknowledge different forms of that kind according to the different classes of things. And as the current judgments as to things being different from one another can be explained on the basis of the apprehension of generic character, and as no additional entity is observed to exist, and as even those who maintain the existence of such an additional thing admit the existence of generic character, we further conclude that difference (bheda) is nothing but generic character (gåti).-But if this were so, the judgment as to difference would immediately follow from the judgment as to generic character, as soon as the latter is apprehended !Quite true, we reply. As a matter of fact the judgment of difference is immediately formulated on the basis of the judgment as to generic character. For the generic character' of a cow, e.g., means just the exclusion of everything else : as soon as that character is apprehended all thought and speech referring to other creatures belonging to the same wider genus (which includes buffaloes and so on also come to an end. It is through the apprehension of difference only that the idea of non-difference comes to an end.
Plurality is not unreal. Next as to the assertion that all difference presented in our cognition-as of jars, pieces of cloth and the like-is unreal because such difference does not persist. This view, we maintain, is altogether erroneous, springs in fact from the neglect of distinguishing between persistence and nonpersistence on the one hand, and the relation between what sublates and what is sublated on the other hand. Where
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