1671 Verse 2625

Original

ते च प्रत्येकमेकात्मरूपत्वेन जडैर्गते ।
सङ्केतव्यवहाराप्तकालव्याप्तिरतो मता ॥ २६२५ ॥

te ca pratyekamekātmarūpatvena jaḍairgate |
saṅketavyavahārāptakālavyāptirato matā || 2625 ||

Each of the two is apprehended by dull-witted men as one and the same; thus it is that it is held to continue during all the time from the convention to the usage.—(2625)

Kamalaśīla

Says the Opponent—“If that is so, then as they vary with each individual person, how could both the speaker and hearer recognise the same Relationship? For instance, the idea present in the speaker’s mind is that ‘I am speaking of the same thing and by the same word that I knew at the time of the Convention’;—and in the mind of the Hearer also, the idea is that ‘this man is speaking of the same thing by the same word’. If it were not so, then the cause (word) and the effect (cognition of the thing) being in two different places, how could there be any Usage at all?”

The answer to this is as follows:—[see verse 2625 above]:

‘Dull-witted men’—i.e. people under illusion.

‘Gate’—apprehended.

‘Saṅketa, etc.’—i.e. the time taken—occupied—by the Convention and the Usage;—i.e. by the repeated idea of Cause and Effect and of sameness (of the Word and Meaning).—(2625)