the
spho/t/a is the word. After the apprehending agent, i.e. the buddhi,
has, through the apprehension of the several letters of the word,
received rudimentary impressions, and after those impressions have been
matured through the apprehension of the last letter, the spho/t/a
presents itself in the buddhi all at once as the object of one mental
act of apprehension.--And it must not be maintained that that one act of
apprehension is merely an act of remembrance having for its object the
letters of the word; for the letters which are more than one cannot form
the object of one act of apprehension.--As that spho/t/a is recognised
as the same as often as the word is pronounced, it is eternal; while the
apprehension of difference referred to above has for its object the
letters merely. From this eternal word, which is of the nature of the
spho/t/a and possesses denotative power, there is produced the object
denoted, i.e. this world which consists of actions, agents, and results
of action.

Against this doctrine the reverend Upavarsha maintains that the letters
only are the word.--But--an objection is raised--it has been said above
that the letters no sooner produced pass away!--That assertion is not
true, we reply; for they are recognised as the same letters (each time
they are produced anew).--Nor can it be maintained that the recognition
is due to similarity only, as in the case of hairs, for instance; for
the fact of the recognition being a recognition in the strict sense of
the word is not contradicted by any other means of proof.--Nor, again,
can it be said that the recognition has its cause in the species (so
that not the same individual letter would be recognised, but only a
letter belonging to the same species as other letters heard before);
for, as a matter of fact, the same individual letters are recognised.
That the recognition of the letters rests on the species could be
maintained only if whenever the letters are pronounced different
individual letters were apprehended, just as several cows are
apprehended as different individuals belonging to the same species. But
this is actually not the case; for the (same) individual letters are
recognised as often as they are pronounced. If, for instance, the word
cow is pronounced twice, we think not that two different words have been
pronounced, but that the same individual word has been repeated.--But,
our opponent reminds us, it has been shown above, that the letters a