History of Indian Philosophy

SR No.: 007593
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Surendranath Dasgupta
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication Year: 1922
Total Pages: 2517
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 125 MB

Page 1648

XXII] Brahman and the World
459 pralaya the world-energies exist in God as some form of consciousness or conscious energy which is later on manifested by Him as material energy or matter. The unity of the world-energies in God is such that though these retain some kind of independence yet it is so held up and mixed up as it were in the reality of God that it cannot be separated from Him. Their independence consists in the fact that they are of the nature of energy, but as God possesses them they can have no existence and they cannot be conceived as apart from Him. As thus described the world of matter has no permanent reality, and the consciousness of this fact may be called the bādha or contradiction (pāramārthika-sattvā-bhāva-niscaya eva bādhaḥ)". But in spite of this bādha the universe has a relative or vyavahārika existence (tādrśa-būdhe’pi ca sati jñāna-sādhanā-dīnām vyavahārikasattvāt).
The causality of prakrti and parusa is limited to their specific capacities which determine the nature of modifications. But God is the universal all-cause behind them which not only shows itself through these specific limitations but which regulates the inner harmony and order subsisting in them and in their mutual relations. Thus the visual organ is limited in its function to the operation of vision, and the tactile organ is limited in its function to the operation of touch, but the functions and activities of all these are organized by the individual self which operates and manifests itself through them. Thus Brahman in this sense may be regarded as being both the instrumental and the material cause. According to Sāmkhya and Yoga the prakyti is supposed to be associated with the puruşas through the inner and inherent teleology, but according to the Vedāntic view as interpreted by Bhikṣu their mutual association is due to the operation of God 3.
1 Vijñāna-mrta-bhāşya, I. I. 4.
brahmanas tu sarva-saktikatvāt tat-tad-upādhibhiḥ sarva-kāranatuam yathā cakşură-dinām darśana-di-kāranatvam yat praty-ekam asti tat sarvam sarvadhyaksasya jīvasya bhavati, etena jagato' bhinna-nimitto-pădānattvam vyākhyātam. Ibid. 1. 1. 2.
* samkhya-yogibhyam puruşā-rtha-prayukta pravrttiḥ svayam eva purusena ādya-jīvena samyuyyate...asmābhis tu prakti-puruşa-samyoga iśvarena kriyate. Ibid.