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1474
TATTVASANGRAHA: CHAPTER XXVI.
TEXT (3338).
WHEN ONE HAS PERCEIVED THE FACT OF THERE BEING no Soul, XO DETROT CAN OBTAIN A FOOTING IN HIM; BECAUSE IT IS ITS CONTRADICTORY. JUST AS WHEN THE BRIGHT LAMP IS THERE, THERE CAN BE NO DARK
NESS.-- (3338)
COMMENTARY
As a matter of fact, Omniscience follows from the removal of Hindrance of Afflictions and the Hindrance of cognisable things it is the Afflictions themselves, in the form of Love, Hate, etc.-which obstruct the perception of the real nature of things which are called the cover of the Afflictions ; and 'the cover of cognisable things' consists in the want of capacity to discern all about things to be secured and to be rejected, and also the inability to describe them. Of these two, the cover of the Afflictions is removed by the direct perception of the fact of there being no-Soul; and the cover of cognisable things' is removed by the faithful and intense and long-continued meditation upon the said Soul-less-ness. All these Afflictions-Love, Hate and the rest-have their root in wrong notions of the Soul, as has been I found through positive and negative concomitance; and they do not proceed from the external things; because, even when the external thing is there, the said Afflictions do not appear without feelings of agreeableness, etc. (?); and conversely, even when the external thing is not there, they appear, when the man is face to face with agreeableness, etc. (?); and when the presence and absence of one thing do not follow the presence and absence of another thing, this latter cannot be the cause of the former; if it were so, there would be incongruities.
Nor can these Afflictions subsist in the Soul postulated by other philosophers; because such a Soul has been already rejected.-But even if such a Soul existed, there would be constant appearance of the Amictions of Love, etc.; because the Soul, which ex-hypothesi, is the cause of the appearance and continuance of the Afflictions, would be always present in its perfect form; specially as the Eternal Cause cannot have any potencies imposed upon it by anything else, it could not stand in need of the help of anything else. All this has been discussed in several places. Further, as one and the same thing has been denied to be the substratum of both the existent and the non-existent, it cannot be right to hold that these Afflictions subsist in any. thing.-From all this it follows that these Afflictions cannot be related to any Eternal Cause.
Nor can they proceed from the external things. They really proceed from the wrong notion of the Soul'. For instance, unless one has the notion of 'I', he cannot have self-love ; and unless he has the notion of 'mine', he cannot have the idea of anything being conducive to bringing pleasure to himself, and he cannot be attached to it as his own'; Hatred also towards anything does not appear unless one recognises that it is conducive to
