________________
VI
ANEKANTA AS A RESOLUTION OF THE PARADOX
OF CAUSALITY
The critique of causality was an important factor in the development of the early philosophical thoughts in India. The first beginning of Indian philosophy can be traced back to the cosmogonic hymns of the Vedas. Notably the Nāsadiya hymn of the Rg-veda records two opposing views about the origin of the Universe : The Universe came out of Being or sat or the existent, and it came out of the non-existent or asat. During the period of philosophic systematization, those two views crystalized into two opposing philosophic positions on causality : satkārya-vāda (of the Sāmkhya), which means that the effect pre-exists in the cause, and asat-kärya-vāda (of the Vaiśesika), which means that the effect is a new creation. These two views actually present the two sides of the ancient philosophical paradox of change and permanence. This paradox is beautifully expressed in a line in the Bhagavad-gitā. 43
“Whatever is non-existent or unreal does not come into existence, whatever is existent or real does not go out of existence."
Nāgārjuna expressed the paradox as follows : 44
“If something exists by nature, it would never cease to exist. For it is certainly not feasible that the nature will be otherwise."
In the Sámkhya system, Vācaspati-miśra formulated the problem as follows:45
“The non-existent does not come into existence, nor the existent cease to exist."
What we have here suggests a striking similarity in the origin of philosophic thought between India and Greece. In both traditions, it is significant to note, philosophy began with a search for a unity that would explain and give some coherence to the apparent incoherence of a universe in a flux. Philosophy originated in India, as much as it did in ancient Greece, when a purely mythological way of thinking was succeeded by a deeper reflection on what was primary in our universe of multiplicity and change.
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