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Atomism
113
REFUTATION OF PARAMĀŅUVĀDA (ATOMISM) BY THE VEDĀNTISTS
ĀCĀRYA SANKARA AND OTHERS Having followed the footsteps of the Vijñānavādin Buddhists, Acārya Sankara, Rāmānuja and other Vedāntists except Madhva have refuted the atomic theory conceived by the Vaiśesikas as the ultimate cause of the Universe in connection with the Vaiseșika charge against the Vedāntist view of the Brahman as the ultimate cause of the Universe
According to the Vaiseșika system of thought, the equalities inherent in the substance constituting the cause reappear in the substance constituting the effect, e. g. white cloth is produced from white thread. If the intelligent Brahman is the cause of the Universe, then intelligence must reapear in all the effects-objects in the Universe. But it is not the case; intelligence is not perceived in the objects like jar, cloth, etc. For this reason the Brahman is not the cause of the Universe.
In reply to this Vaišesika charge Ācārya Sankara argues that according to the Vaiśesikas, the spherical atoms produce the dyads which are minute and short and triads which are great and long, but not any thing spherical. That is to say, the qualities like white colour, etc., which, inhering in the atoms, produce other qualities like white, etc., in the dyads, but the dimension-sphericity (parimāņdalya) existing in atom does not produce another sphericity in the dyad. In this way the dyads which are minute and short produce the triads (tryaņukas), tetrads (caturaņuka), etc., which are big and long and not minute and short, i. e. the dimension of dvyanuka-anutva (smallness) and hrasvatva (shortness), does not appear in the triad and tetrad. For this reason the Vaiseșika principle, "the quality of cause must also be present in the effect" cannot be accepted in all cases. On this ground, Acārya Sankara opines that just as the dyad having the minute and short dimension is produced from the atoms having the spherical dimension and the triad having great and long dimension is produced
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