उभयथा च दोषात् ॥ २३ ॥
ubhayathā ca doṣāt || 23 ||
ubhayathā—In either case; ca—and; doṣāt—because of objections.
23. And in either case (i.e. whether Nescience with its offshoots meets with conscious or unconscious destruction resulting in final release) because of the objections (that arise, the Bauddha position is untenable).
Nescience, according to the Bauddhas, is the false idea of permanency in things momentary. They say that on the destruction of it Moksha or Freedom is attained. Now this destruction of Nescience must be one of the two kinds referred to in the last Sutra. If it is a conscious destruction, depending on the effort of the individual—his penance and knowledge then this would go(?) counter to the Buddhistic doctrine of momentariness, according to which Nescience will also be momentary and cease to exist after a moment of its own accord. And if we say that the destruction of ignorance is spontaneous, then the Buddhist instruction as to the ‘path’ is useless. So in either case the Bauddha position is untenable.