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* THE REVEALED WORD.”
1121
wise, if any and every qualification could make the Reason conclusive, then no Reason could ever be Inconclusive ; because qualifications would easily be available by the mere wish for it ;-the character of not being a Product does not set aside its capacity to bring about wrong notions ; because if being a product were known to be the cause of being a source of wrong notions, then the absence of the former might mean the absence of the latter also.
The Opponent might say "It is so known".
The answer to that is In that case, etc. etc.' -If the character of being a Product were the reason for being the source of wrong notions, then the character of not being a Product would be the reason for being the source of right notions ;-because Right and Wrong Cognitions being mutually contradictory, both could not proceed from one and the same cause ; e.g. Fire, which is the source of Heat, cannot be the source of gold; consequently, as Smoke is a product, it could not be the means of the Right Notion of Fire.(2405)
The following might be urged :-" What is meant by us is, not that the character of being a product is the cause of wrong cognition only, but that the said character alone is the cause of the wrong cognition; there is no other cause for it; we do not assert that Right Cognition can never be brought about by what is a Product. Everything that is a product is not equally regarded by us as being the cause of Wrong Cognition ; by virtue of which, the Right and Wrong Cognitions being mutually contradictory, all that is not-product would be the source of Right Cognition. What is meant by us is that Products being multifarious, it is only some Products that are the source of Wrong Cognition,-e.g. jaundice, etc.-while some are the source of Right Cognition,-0.g. the whole lot of undiseased sense organs. If it were not so, then, on finding that some products like Ice are the source of cold, it might be presumed by implication that warmth which is contrary to cold is due to something that is not a Product. As a matter of fact, however, this is not so.Thus, inasmuch as we do not deny the fact of the Product being the source of Right Cognition, Smoke does remain the means of Right Cognition (of Fire)".
Anticipating this argument, the Author answers it in the following
TEXT (2406).
THUS, EVEN THOUGH NOT THE WORK OF A PERSON, THE VEDA CANNOT BE THE SOURCE OF RIGHT COGNITION; HENCE THE
ASSUMPTION OF IT IS ENTIRELY FUTILE,—(2406)
COMMENTARY.
If the character of being a Product were the cause of both Rightness and Wrongness, then the absence of that character would mean the absence of both Right and Wrong Cognition; consequently the fact of the Veda not being a product could not be a ground for its being a source of Right Cognition;