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Āptamīmāmsā
material cause must be identical with its effect. There can be no difference in nature and attributes between the material cause and its effect. From clay we can only obtain a mud-pot. Out of gold you can only obtain a gold ornament.1
The relation between the material cause and its effect is that wherever the cause is present the effect would be present, and wherever the effect would be present the cause must have been present. Again, negatively, if the cause is absent the effect must also be absent and conversely if the effect is absent the cause must also be absent.
Ācārya Samantabhadra's Svayambhūstotra:
बाह्येतरोपाधिसमग्रतेयं कार्येषु ते द्रव्यगतः स्वभावः । नैवान्यथा मोक्षविधिश्च पुंसां तेनाभिवन्द्यस्त्वमृषिर्बुधानाम् ॥
(12-5-60) The accomplishment of a task (kārya - the making of a pitcher, for example) depends on the simultaneous availability of the internal (upādāna – substantial) and the external (nimitta – auxiliary) causes; such is the nature of the substance (dravya)*. In no other way can liberation be achieved and, therefore, the learned men worship you, O Adept Sage!
Jain, Vijay K. (2015), “Ācārya Samantabhadra's Svayambhūstotra”, p. 83-84.
*To give a familiar example, when a potter proceeds with the
task (kārya) of making a pitcher out of clay, the potter is the external or instrumental cause (nimitta kartā) and the clay is the internal or substantial cause (upādāna
1. See Prof. A. Chakravarti (2008), "Acārya Kundakunda's
Samayasāra”, Introduction, p. 171.
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