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VEDÂNTA-SŪTRAS.
beyond the Undeveloped there is the Person. There we recognise, named by the same names and enumerated in the same order, the three entities with which we are acquainted from the Sânkhya-smriti, viz. the great principle, the Undeveloped (the pradhana), and the soul? That by the Undeveloped is meant the pradhana is to be concluded from the common use of Smriti and from the etymological interpretation of which the word admits, the pradhâna being called undeveloped because it is devoid of sound and other qualities. It cannot therefore be asserted that there is no scriptural authority for the pradhâna. And this pradhana vouched for by Scripture we declare to be the cause of the world, on the ground of Scripture, Smriti, and ratiocination.
Your reasoning, we reply, is not valid. The passage from the Kathaka quoted by you intimates by no means the existence of that great principle and that Undeveloped which are known from the Sânkhya-smriti. We do not recognise there the pradhana of the Sankhyas, i. e. an independent general cause consisting of three constituting elements; we merely recognise the word 'Undeveloped,' which does not denote any particular determined thing, but may-owing to its etymological meaning, that which is not developed, not manisest '—denote anything subtle and difficult to distinguish. The Sânkhyas indeed give to the word a settled meaning, as they apply it to the pradhâna; but then that meaning is valid for their system only, and has no force in the determination of the sense of the Veda. Nor does mere equality of position prove equality of being, unless the latter be recognised independently. None but a fool would think a cow to be a horse because he sees it tied in the usual place of a horse. We, moreover, conclude, on the strength of the general subjectmatter, that the passage does not refer to the pradhâna the fiction of the Sânkhyas, on account of there being referred
I The Great one is the technical Sânkhya-term for buddhi, avyakta is a common designation of pradhâna or prakriti, and purusha is the technical name of the soul. Compare, for instance, Sânkhya Kâr. 2, 3.
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