0405 Verse 528

Original

बुद्धेर्यथा न जन्मैव प्रमाणत्वं निरुध्यते ।
तथैव सर्वभावेषु तद्धेतुत्वं न किं मतम् ॥ ५२८ ॥

buddheryathā na janmaiva pramāṇatvaṃ nirudhyate |
tathaiva sarvabhāveṣu taddhetutvaṃ na kiṃ matam || 528 ||

In the case of cognition, its coming into existence itself has been described as constituting its character of ‘means of right cognition’; why then should not the causal character in the case of all things be held to be the same?—(528)

Kamalaśīla

In the case of Cognition there is no other operation apart from its being born, coming into existence; for instance under Mīmāṃsā-sūtra 1. 1.4, defining ‘Sense-perception’,—while explaining the purpose served by the term ‘janma’, ‘birth’, in the Sūtra, Kumārila has declared as follows—“What the term ‘birth of Cognition’ connotes is the fact of the Cognition being a Means of Right Cognition as soon as it is born; in the case of other agencies, a certain Operation is found, which is something distinct from their birth; in order to preclude the same in the case of the Means of Right Cognition, it is necessary to use the term ‘birth’,”—(Ślokavārtika; Sūtra 1. 1. 4, 53-54).

‘The causal character, etc.’;—i.e. why cannot all things be regarded as produced by the ‘birth ‘coming into existence’, of the Cause?—(528)