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Rangācārya
397 it. As the change is of a homogeneous nature, it may also be regarded as unchanged. The Brahman is the ultimate upholder of the world; though the worldly things have their intermediate causes, in which they may be regarded as subsisting, yet since Brahman is the ultimate and absolute locus of subsistence all things are said to be upheld in it.
Causation may be defined as unconditional, invariable antecedence (ananyathā-siddha-niyata-pūrva-vartitā). Brahman is certainly the ultimate antecedent entity of all things, and its unconditional character is testified by all scriptural texts. The fact that it determines the changes in cit and acit and is therefore to be regarded as the instrumental agent does not divest it of its right to be regarded as the material cause; for it alone is the ultimate antecedent substance. Brahman originally holds within itself the cit and the acit in their subtle nature as undivided in itself, and later on undergoes within itself such changes by its own will as to allow the transformation of cit and acit in their gross manifested forms. It leaves its pristine homogeneous character and adopts an altered state at least with reference to its true parts, the cit and the acit, which in their subtle state remained undivided in themselves. It is this change of Brahman's nature that is regarded as the pariņāma of Brahman. Since Brahman is thus admitted to be undergoing change of state (pariņāma), it can consistently be regarded as the material cause of the world. The illustration of the ocean and the waves is also consistent with such an explanation. Just as mud transforms itself into earthen jugs or earthen pots, and yet in spite of all its changes into jugs or pots really remains nothing but mud, so Brahman also undergoes changes in the form of the manifested world with which it can always be regarded as onel. As the jug and the pot are not false, so the world also is not false. But the true conception of the world will be to consider it as one with Brahman. The upper and the lower parts of a jug may appear to be different when they are not regarded as parts of the jug, and
1 vahu syām prajāyeye'tyä-di-śrutibhih srsteh prūñ nāma-rūpa-vibhāgābhāvena ekatva-vasthāpannasya sūksma-cid-acid-visista-brahmanah paścān-nāmarūpa-vibhāgena ekatvā-vasthā-prahāna-pūrvakam sthūla-cid-acid-vaisistya-laksanavahutva-pattir-hi prasphutam prati pádyate; sai'va hi brahmanah pariņumo nāma; prāg-avasthā-prahänenā' vasthā-ntara-prāpter eva pariņāma-sabda-rthatvāt.... yathā sarvam myd-dravya-vikrti-bhūtam ghațā-di-karya-jātam kāraṇa-bhūtamrd-dravya-bhinname va na tu dravyā-ntaram tathā brahmă'pi jagataḥ abhinnam eva. Ku-drsti-dhrānta-mārtanda, p. 66.
