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1436
TATTVASANGRAHA: CHAPTER XXVI.
TEXTS (3244-3246).
" TEACHINGS ISSUING FROM THE WALLS COULD NOT BE ACCEPTED AS TAUGHT BY A RELIABLE PERSON. IN FACT, THERE WOULD BE NO CONFIDENCE IN THEM,--IT BEING DOUBTFUL BY WHOM THEY HAVE BEEN PROPOUNDED-HAVE THEY BEEN PROPOUNDED BY Buddha, OR BY DECEITFUL Brahmanas, PUT FORWARD IN JOKE, BY MEANS OF WORDS BEARING THE SEMBLANCE OF THE WORDS (OF BUDDHA), -OR BY PETTY UNSEEN ELEMENTALS AND OTHERS.For THESE REASONS, PEOPLE WHO REGARD THEMSELVES AS WISE SHOULD PLACE NO CONFIDENCE IN SUCH
TEACHINGS."-3244-3246)
COMMENTARY.
All this is easily comprehensible.--(3244-3246)
So far the Author has set forth arguments, from Kumärila's point of view, against the Buddhist view that there are Omniscient Persons. He now sets forth arguments adduced by the two writers, Sāmata and Yajñata, against the idea of the Omniscient Person:
TEXTS (3247-3261) "THUS THEN, THERE IS NO ROOM FOR THE OMNISCIENCE OF MEN. WE
NOW PROCEED TO CONSIDER WHY THE OMNISCIENT PERSON HAS BEEN POSTULATED—YOUR OMNISCIENT PERSON-DOES HE APPREHEND ALL THINGS BY A SINGLE COGNITION? OR BY SEVERAL COGNITIONS ? AND THEN, DOES HE APPREHEND THEM ALL AT ONCE ? OR IN SUOCESSION-NOTICING ONLY THE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS? IN NO CASE HAS IT BEEN SEEN THAT A SINGLE COGNITION APPREHENDS SUCH CONTRADICTORY THINGS As pure and impure AND SO TORTH; NOR HAVE SEVERAL DIVERGENT COGNITIONS BEEN TOUND TO APPEAR AT ONE AND THE SAME TIME. WHO TOO IS THERE WHO COULD APPREHEND, EVEN IN HUNDREDS OF YEARS, EACH OF THE ENDLESS NUMBER OF THINGS, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE ?-EVEN IF THE PERSON, BY. HIS OWN UNDIVERSIFIED NATURE, APPREHENDS ALL THINGS, HE CANNOT APPREHEND THE SPECIFIC INDIVIDUALITIES OF ALL THINGS. UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES, WHAT WOULD BE THE USE OF THE OMNISCIENT PERSON WHO KNOWS THE THINGS ONLY IN THEIR GENERAL FORM? SPECIALLY AS IN NO OTHER FORM TS THE THING APPREHENDED. THEN AGAIN, THIS UNIFORM COGNITION COULD BE EITHER TRUE OR FALSE.-IF IT BE HELD TO BE true, THEN THIS WOULD BE CONTRARY TO PERCEIVED PACTS; AS IT WOULD MEAN THAT ALL IS one, WITHOUT A SECOND; AND THE RESULT OF THIS