Nyāya Sūtras 280

Unable to tolerate this statement, "like the conception of difference in a crystal", the advocate of momentariness says—

In a crystal too, because different individuals arise one after another due to momentariness, there is no [valid] reason.

The thesis that 'there is a conception of manifoldness due to the difference of adjacent conditions in a crystal that remains without difference' has no logical reason. Why? Because in a crystal too, different individuals arise one after another. In a crystal also, some individuals arise and other individuals cease. How? Because individuals are momentary. And a moment is a minute time; those that last for a moment are momentary. How then is it understood that individuals are momentary? Because of the observation of a continuum of accumulation and depletion in bodies and the like. In the body, accumulation and depletion proceed in a continuous series in the form of blood and so forth from the food-chyle produced by digestion. From accumulation comes the arising of individuals, and from depletion comes the cessation of individuals. And this being so, growth of the body is perceived over a period of time through the variation of the modification of parts; thus this property of particular individuals is to be known as belonging to every individual.