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204 Philosophy of the Rāmānuja School of Thought [CH. collocation of causes consists of ideational and non-ideational (bodhābodha-svabhāra) factors!.
If the view of the l'edānta-paribhāṣā is to be accepted, then the Sankarite view also is very much like the Rāmānuja view on this point; for both Dharmarājādhvarindra and Rāmakrsna agree in defining pramāna as the instrument of right knowledge. In the case of visual perception or the like the visual or the other sense organs are regarded as pramūna; and the sense-contact is regarded as the operation of this instrument.
The difference between the Nyāya view and the Rāmānuja view consists in this, that, while the Nyāya gives equal importance to all members of the collocation, the Rāmānuja view distinguishes that only as the instrumental cause which is directly associated with the active operation (vyāpāra). Even the Sankarites agree with such a productive view of knowledge; for, though they believe consciousness to be eternal and unproduced, yet they also believe the states of consciousness (urtti-jñāna) to be capable of being produced. Both the Rāmānuja and the Sankara beliefs accept the productive view of knowledge in common with the Nyāya view, because with both of them there is the objective world standing outside the subject, and perceptual knowledge is produced by the sense-organs when they are in operative contact with the external objects. A distinction, however, is made in the Rāmānuja school between kārana (cause) and karana (important instrument), and that cause which is directly and intimately associated with certain operations leading to the production of the effect is called a karana”. It is for this reason that, though the Rāmānuja view may agree regarding the sāmagri, or collocation as causes, in some sense it regards only the sense-organ as the chief instrument; the others are accessories or otherwise helpful to production.
There are Buddhists also who believe that it is the joint collocation of mental and extra-mental factors of the preceding moment which produce knowledge and external events of the later moment; but they consider the mental factors to be directly producing knowledge, whereas the extra-mental or external objects are mere accessories or exciting agents. Knowledge on this view is determined
bodhă-bodha-st'abhātā samagri pramānam. Nyaya-manjari, p. 15.
? tat-kāraṇānām madhye yad atiśavena kūryot pāda kam tat karanum. Rāmānuja-siddhānta-samgraha. Govt. Oriental MS. No. 4988.
