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VIVEKACUDAMANI
247
top, at the sides. In fact, everywhere, clay of the form of a bulging belly etc., is called pot. The form of the pot as black etc., does not exist separately from clay. Apart from the form of the clay, there is no special form for the pot. The clay possessing a certain form is called pot; there is no separate form for the part apart from the clay. According to the śruti: vācārambhaṇam vikāro nāmadheyam (Chand.) (the name is only a matter of speech), the 'pot' is only an imagined name. Therefore, where is the form in the pot different from the form of clay? The word 'pot' has reference to what is only imagined. Even as Devadatta is one individual only whether he has contracted his hands and legs or has extended them, and is not different in the two cases, so too the pot does not differ from clay.
231
For clear understanding, the same is explained again:
केनापि मृद्भिन्नतया स्वरूपं घटस्य संदर्शयितुं न शक्यते । . अतो घट: कल्पित एव मोहात् मृदेव सत्यं परमार्थभूतम् ।। २३१ ॥
kenapi mṛdbhinnatayā svarūpam
· ghatasya samdarśayitum na śakyate
ato ghaṭaḥ kalpita eva mohāt
mrdeva satyam paramarthabhutam ||
It is not possible for anyone to show the form of the pot apart from the clay. Hence, the pot is imagined only due to delusion. Clay alone is the abiding reality of the pot.
kenapi: by any one. Or, even by Brahma ('kah' standing for Brahma). The real nature of the pot cannot be shown apart from the clay. Therefore, (what is called) a pot is imagined as different only by delusion. Therefore, clay alone is the primary meaning of pot. Vide the śruti: mṛttiketyeva satyam (Chand): "truth is that it is clay only". It exists before the pot came into existence and will subsist after it is destroyed.
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Having shown by the illustration of the clay and the pot that the form does not exist apart from the matter, that is applied to the subject for which this is the illustration.
