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360
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VEDÂNTA-SÚTRAS.
condition of life, and diversity of condition again on work. The Lord may be considered as acting with regard to religious merit after distinction had once arisen ; but as before that the cause of inequality, viz. merit, did not exist, it follows that the first creation must have been free from inequalities.
This objection we meet by the remark, that the transmigratory world is without beginning.– The objection would be valid if the world had a beginning ; but as it is without beginning, merit and inequality are, like seed and sprout, caused as well as causes, and there is therefore no logical objection to their operation.—To the question how we know that the world is without a beginning, the next Sûtra replies.
36. (The beginninglessness of the world recommends itself to reason and is seen (from Scripture).
The beginninglessness of the world recommends itself to reason. For if it had a beginning it would follow that, the world springing into existence without a cause, the released souls also would again enter into the circle of transmigratory existence; and further, as then there would exist no determining cause of the unequal dispensation of pleasure and pain, we should have to acquiesce in the doctrine of rewards and punishments being allotted, without reference to previous good or bad actions. That the Lord is not the cause of the inequality, has already been remarked. Nor can Nescience by itself be the cause, as it is of a uniform nature. On the other hand, Nescience may be the cause of inequality, if it be considered as having regard to merit accruing from action produced by the mental impressions of wrath, hatred, and other afflicting passions. Without merit and demerit nobody can enter into existence, and again, without a body merit and demerit cannot be formed; so that—on the doc
1 Râgadvcshamohâ râgadayas le ka purusham dukhâdibhih klisyant îti klesâs teshâm râsanâh karmapravrityanugunâs tabhir âkshiplan dharmadilakshanam karma tadapckshavidyâ. Ân. Gi.
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