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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
tion sub-latent. In this way does the evolution of prakriti continually proceed, building up and then destroying the worlds. .... Similar views prevailed in the school of thought known as Yoga. The material of the universe, according to this school, consists of Akasa and Prana (Life). Swami Vivekananda thus explains the function of Akası :--
* At the beginning of creation there is only the Akasu (ether). It is the akası that becomes the air, that becomes the liquids, that becomes the solids ; it is the akasa that becomes the sun, the earth, the moon, the stars, the comets ; it is the alea sa that becomes the body, the animal body, the plants, every form that we see, every thing that can be sensed, every thing that exists. At the end of the cycle, the solids, the liquids, the gases all melt into the aka sa again, and the next creation similarly poceeds out of this akasa.
According to the Nyâya school, the atoms of earth, water, fire and air are the material cause of the visible and tangible parts of the Universe, and are themselves. self-existent and eternal. The Vaiseshikas go minutely into the theory of atoms. The founder of their school, nick-named Kanada (literally, the atom-eater), explains the nature and aggregation of atoms in the following manner: "The mote which is seen in a sunbeam is the smallest perceptible quantity. Being a substance and an - effect, it must be composed of what is less than itself ; and this likewise is a substance and an effect, for the component part of a substance which bas magnitude must be an effect. This again must be composed of what is smaller, and that smaller thing is an atom. It is simple and uncomposed, else the series. would be endless, and were it pursued indefinitely, there would be no difference of magnitude between a
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