12. The existence of the ego amidst non-ego is a mere imagination of those who are deluded by the idea that it exists and shines,--it being no object to be sought or avoided. Does akasa ever shine?

The Buddhistic metaphysicians regard akasa as a non-entity, because it is no object which one endeavours to secure or to avoid. Likewise, since the idea of the ego amidst the non-ego as existing and shining leads to no human endeavour to secure or avoid it, its existence and the light with which it is said to shine are non-entities.

Refutation of Nihilism.

13. The Buddhistic doctrinaire thus speaking is silenced (in the sixth stanza of the Hymn).

The meaning of the stanza may be explained at follows:--

If the cause of the universe be void (Sunya), a non-entity, the universe itself cannot be as we find it.

14. Who ever says that the pot is a nonentity, or that the cloth is a non-entity?

The Buddhist says that there was nothing before the universe came into being,--that the universe was made out of nothing. But in our experience, whatever effect comes out of a thing as the cause, it is always conceived to be made up of that cause, and the cause is resorted to as productive of the effect. Thus a gold ring is always conceived to be made up of gold, and is resorted to as serving the purposes of gold. If the universe had been made out of nothing, we would look upon it as nothing and neglect it altogether as such. The Nihilistic theory, therefore, ought to be discarded by those who demand proof for things presented to their belief.

The Nihilist may perhaps say that, though the universe is really a non-entity, yet, owing to illusion, our conduct in life may go on as if the universe were real. To this the Vedantin replies as follows:

14. If the universe were a non-entity, it would never have appeared, any more than a man's horn.

15. To what would one resort seeking to have a thing? What would one cast aside who is afflicted with a burden? Who is there to command or prohibit, when one's own self is a non-entity?

16. This whole universe, therefore, having no cause for its existence, may come to an end.

A non-entity cannot even be a subject of illusion any more than a man's horn.

Refutation of the doctrine of the five Skandhas.

16. Now as to the theory that there exists none who combines and elaborates the skandhas and paramanus.

17. A combination cannot occur without a cause (i.e., the combiner). A pot, a cloth, and the like are inert.

They are insentient and cannot, therefore, combine together by . Thread, for instance, cannot, by itself, form a cloth without a weaver handling it. Further, the theory that the Ego is momentary leads to many absurdities.

"I shall become an Exalted Being," thus thinks the deluded (Buddhist)