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TATTVASANGRAHA: CHAPTER XXV.
TEXTS (3482-3484).
IN THIS WAY, THE VEDIC SENTENCES, BEING DEPENDENT UPON OTHER
THINGS, CANNOT BE RELIABLE.-AS REGARDS THE EXPOUNDERS, AS THEY DO NOT THEMSELVES PERCEIVE Dharma, THESE ALSO CAN NEVER BE RELIABLE. OF SUCH EXPOUNDERS, EVEN THOUGH beginninglessness MAY BE POSTULATED, IT WOULD BE IN A POSITION THAT IS NOT RELIABLE ; AND HENCE IT WOULD NOT BE DIFFERENT IN CHARACTER FROM THE BEGINNINGLESSNESS OF THE UNBELIEVERS AND OTHERS. THUS THERE BEING NO DIFFERENCE DISCERNIBLE, ALL THIS COMES TO BE ON THE SAME FOOTING; SO THAT NEITHER Reliability NOR Unreliability WOULD BE BEGINNINGLESS.-(3482--3484)
COMMENTARY.
*Can never be reliable-That is Reliability can never be theirs.
Whon, in this way, the Vedic Sentences themselves, being dupondont upon other things, cannot be reliable,-their Expounders would be like a group of blind people, having no knowledge of dharma; and as such these also would be umreliable.
Thus what has been asserted by the other party, to the effect that "Reliability (Validity) and Unreliability (Invalidity) would thus be be. ginningless", --cannot be right. This is what is pointed out by the words
Na mānatvāpramūnatvē, etc. etc.-Only if the reliability of the Expoundors and the Veda had been established, could the said Reliability be beginningless; as a matter of fact, however, that itself has not been established; hence it is not right to assert that both these are beginningless.-(3482-3484)
Then again, when we asserted that the Vedas and their expounders stand on the same footing as Buddha and His Teachings,-it was merely as a counterblast ; as a matter of fact, there can bo no equality between the Blessed Lord and His Teachings on the one hand and the Vedas and their expounders on the other; there is really a great difference between them.-This is what is pointed out in the following
TEXT (3485).
IN FACT, THERE IS THIS DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SAGE AND THOSE WORDS, THAT HE PERCEIVED THE Dharma HIMSELF AND
EXPOUNDED THEM THROUGH MEROY.-(3485)
COMMENTARY.
It has been already proved that the Blessed Lord had the direct perception of Dharma and taught it. Hence what the opponent has asserted (under Text 3179) regarding the unreliability of one who has never himself perceived Dharma, is 'inadmissible' (3485)
