0995 Verse 1401

Original

किन्तु रूपादिभावेऽपि चक्षुर्ज्ञानं न जायते ।
कदाचित्तेन तन्मात्रं न हेतुरिति गम्यते ॥ १४०१ ॥

kintu rūpādibhāve’pi cakṣurjñānaṃ na jāyate |
kadācittena tanmātraṃ na heturiti gamyate || 1401 ||

But sometimes, even though colour and other things are there, visual perception does not take place; hence it is understood that that (perception) alone cannot be a reason (for the existence of the eye).—(1401)

Kamalaśīla

‘Sometimes’,—when, for instance, the Eyes are closed.

We never seek to prove the existence of the Eye—directly as ‘this is the Eye’; what happens (according to us) is that it is found that the Perception appears only when certain things, in the form of Colour, etc. are there,—and it is so found that it is present when these things are there, and it is absent when they are absent;—and what we seek to prove is that the Perception could not have those things alone as its cause,—that it must have some other cause; so that the Subject (of our Inference) is the said Perception, which cannot be said to be ‘unknown’,—What this other cause is comes to be spoken of as the ‘Eye’,

The basis of our conclusion is the practical notion of diversity.—(1401)