1684 Verse 2658

Original

अर्थद्योतनहेतोश्च सङ्केतस्य नराश्रयात् ।
शक्तावितरजन्यायामपि मिथ्यात्वसम्भवः ॥ २६५८ ॥

arthadyotanahetośca saṅketasya narāśrayāt |
śaktāvitarajanyāyāmapi mithyātvasambhavaḥ || 2658 ||

Inasmuch as the convention that serves to indicate the meaning is dependent upon man,—there would be possibility of ‘falsity’ (mistake) in the potency, even though born otherwise.—(2658)

Kamalaśīla

Even granting the dependence of the Potency upon Convention;—the Author points out another objection:—[see verse 2658 above]

With the view that you may have a clear and correct conception of the meanings of words, you have discarded the agency of man (in the matter of the Potency of words), regarding him as the source of confusion and mistake.—But when words used by certain persons become confounded regarding their exact signification,—then the Vedic scholars would have an equal Cognition of all those significations, and would they not themselves make a confusion among them? Specially as those people would not be cognisant of the truth. Thus then the Convention would be dependent upon the whims of men; and who could restrain this whim whence it has begun to operate, in the case of men ignorant of the truth?—Thus the Convention born of the unrestrained whim would itself be unrestrained and hostile: and being so, why should it avoid the wrong signification?—(2658)