________________
1132
TATTVASANGRAHA : CHAPTER XXIV.
TEXT (2430).
THUS TEEN, WHEN A PROOF HAS BEEN ADDUCED IN SUPPORT OF THE TWO ENDS OF THE VEDA,-BY THE REFUTATION OF THAT PROOF, THE UPHOLDERS OF THE VEDA DO NOT HAVE THEIR
PURPOSE ACCOMPLISHED.-(2430)
COMMENTARY
"Tat-Therefore, thus.
"They do not have their purpose accomplished'-i.e. their opinion does not become established.--(2430)
It has been urged above by the Mimāmsaka, under the Text 2105, that"Eternality is what is meant by the two characters of being not produced and being not destroyed, and both these being of the nature of Negation, do not require any proof for themselves".
The Buddhist's answer to this is as follows
TEXTS (2431-2432). IF ETERNALITY' IS WHAT IS MEANT BY being not produced and being not destroyed, -THEN, INASMUCH AS BOTH WOULD BE OF THE NATURE OF MERE NEGATION, THE SAME MAY BE SAID REGARDING THE non-entity ALSO. CONSEQUENTLY, JUST AS THE ETERNALITY OF THE SKY-LOTUS' IS NOT REAL, IN THE SAME WAY THE reliability OF THE VEDA ALSO DOES
NOT BECOME ESTABLISHED.-(2431-2432)
COMMENTARY.
There are two assumptions here—(1) that eternality is asserted on the basis of the two characters of being not produced and being not destroyed, which are of the nature of absolute negation, and (2) that these latter are of the nature of Relative Negation under the former view (1) the Reason being 'inconclusive (doubtful) in view of the Sky-lotus', the eternality' of the Veda does not become established as a real entity ; because in the case of the Sky-lotus', though both the said characters of being produced and being destroyed are denied, -yet its eternality does not become established as a real entity; the same happens in the case of the Veda; hence the Reason is 'Inconclusive'; and from this it would follow that, as in the Sky lotus, so in the Veda also, there would be no reliability.-(2431-2432)
question
is also
The following Teat shows that the Reason in Inadmissible':