________________
XIV)
Eschatology
517
Eschatology The Gītā is probably the earliest document where a definite statement is made regarding the imperishable nature of existent things and the impossibility of that which is non-existent coming into being. It says that what is non-existent cannot come into being, and that what exists cannot cease to be. In modern times we hear of the principle of the conservation of energy and also of the principle of the conservation of mass. The principle of the
conservation of energy is distinctly referred to in the Vyāsa-bhāsya . on Patañjali-sūtra, iv. 3, but the idea of the conservation of mass
does not seem to have been mentioned definitely anywhere. Both the Vedāntist and the Sāmkhyist seem to base their philosophies on an ontological principle known as sat-kārya-rāda, which holds that the effect is already existent in the cause. The Vedānta holds that the effect as such is a mere appearance and has no true existence; the cause alone is truly existent. The Sāmkhya, on the other hand, holds that the effect is but a modification of the causal substance, and, as such, is not non-existent, but has no existence separate from the cause; the effect may therefore be said to exist in the cause before the starting of the causal operation (kārana-vyāpāra). Both these systems strongly object to the Buddhist and Nyāya view that the effect came into being out of non-existence, a doctrine known as a-sat-kārya-rāda. Both the Sāmkhya and the Vedānta tried to prove their theses, but neither of them seems to have realized that their doctrines are based upon an a priori proposition which is the basic principle underlying the principle of the conservation of energy and the conservation of mass, but which is difficult to be proved by reference to a posteriori illustration. Thus, the Sāmkhya says that the effect exists in the cause, since, had it not been so, there would be no reason why certain kinds of effects, e.g. oil, can be produced only from certain kinds of causes, e.g. sesamum. That certain kinds of effects are produced only from certain kinds of causes does not really prove the doctrine of satkārya-vāda, but only implies it; for the doctrine of sat-kārya-vāda rests on an a priori principle such as that formulated in the Gitā --that what exists cannot perish, and that what does not exist cannot come into being? The Gitā does not try to prove this proposition, but takes it as a self-evident principle which no one could
ināsato vidyate bhāvo nābhavo vidyate sataḥ. Gitā, 11. 16.
