0697 Verse 952

Original

यद्यप्यपोहनिर्मुक्ते न वृत्तिः शब्दलिङ्गयोः ।
युक्तस्तथापि बोधस्तु ज्ञातुं वस्त्ववलम्बते ॥ ९५२ ॥

yadyapyapohanirmukte na vṛttiḥ śabdaliṅgayoḥ |
yuktastathāpi bodhastu jñātuṃ vastvavalambate || 952 ||

“Even though the word and the indicative may not operate upon anything devoid of Apoha,—yet the cognition rests upon the entity which is what it apprehends.”—[Ślokavārtika-Apoha 92]—(952)

Kamalaśīla

The following might be urged—‘As a matter of fact, Words and Inferential Indicatives are found to operate only in regard to things as excluded from others, and not as devoid of such exclusion (Apoha); and it is on that ground that it is asserted that the Apoha is established by Words and Indications; and it is not on the basis of the pointing out of what is excluded; so that all that has been urged regarding the theory being contrary to experience is not relevant at all’.

This is answered in the following—[see verse 952 above]

Even though the thing may be ‘excluded from others’,—yet when Cognition arises in regard to it, through Words and Indicatives, it does not rest upon that ‘Exclusion of others’ which may be there, but upon the element of ‘Entity’; as it is to this latter that it is attached. That factor of the thing which is apprehended by the Verbal or Inferential Cognition is really the object of that Cognition, and not anything else which, even though present, is not apprehended. For instance, even though the smell and other properties of the flower are there, yet these are not held to be denoted by the word ‘Mālatī’.—(952)