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Atomism
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causes, they are not permanent, there is no point in referring to the non-eternality of effects,"] is not satisfactory. The eternal cause may be Brahman. Again a word need not always imply the existence of the thing implied by the word. The object must be established as existing by other means of knowledge. If ignorance or non-perception of the cause is too wide, we may believe even binary compounds to be eternal, for they produce perceptible effects and are themselves produced by non-perceived atoms. If it is said that non-perception in avidyāl means that atoms cannot be destroyed either by the destruction of the cause or by disintegration and, therefore, they are to be regarded as eternal, we reply that this reasoning applies only to things that come into being as the result of the combination of several substances. Then the things perish when the substances become separate from each other or are themselves destroyed, but the view of the Vedānta is that the destruction of the effect is possible only by a modification in its condition, as solid ghee is destroyed when it is reduced to a liquid condition. So atoms may not be destroyed or disintegrated but may be transformed into a prior nonatomic condition, which is the condition of the being of Brahman.”3 Therefore, the atomic theory is untenable. 4
According to the Vaišesika view, gross earth possesses the four qualities, viz. colour, taste, smell and touch; fine water possesses the three qualities, viz. colour, taste and touch; still finer fire possesses the two qualities, viz. colour and touch, and air, the finest of all, possesses only the quality of touch. In this way these four gross elements of Matter are found in the world. Ācārya Sarkara asks the question whether the atoms constituting the four elements possess larger or smaller number
1. Anitya iti viseşataḥ pratişedhabhāvaḥ, VS., IV. 1. 4. 2. Paramānoranityatvavisayā sarvāpyanumitiḥ avidyā
bhramarūpā ābhāsāprabhavatvāt, VSU., 4. 1. 5. 3. BS., pp. 375-376. 4. SBhā on BS., II. 2. 15.
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