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xxx] Brahman as material and instrumental cause 313
Again, it is also wrong to say that Brahman is both the material cause and the instrumental cause of the world, as the substancestuff of the world and as the creator or modeller of the world; for the material cause undergoes modifications and changes, whereas the Brahman is unchangeable. Brahman, again, is always the master, and the individual selves or souls are always His servants: so God alone is always free (nitya-mukta), whereas individual souls are always related and bound to Him. The gunas belong to prakyti or māyā and not to the individual souls; and therefore, since the gunas of prakrti are not in the individual souls, there cannot be any question of the bondage of individual souls by them or of liberation from them. Whatever bondage, therefore, there is by which the gunas tie the individual souls is due to ignorance (avidyā). The gunas, again, cannot affect God; for they are dependent (adhina) on Him. It is only out of a part of God that all individual souls have come into being, and that part is so far different from God that, though through ignorance the individual souls, which have sprung forth from this part, may be suffering bondage, God Himself remains ever free from all such ignorance and bondage2. The māyā or prakrti which forms the material cause of the world is a fine dusty stuff or like fine cotton fibres (sūkşma-renumayi sāca tantu-vāyasya tantuvat), and God fashions the world out of this stuffs. This
I muktāv api st'āni-bhrtya-bhāva-sadbhāvena bhakty-ādi-bandha-sadbhāvāt nitya-baddhatram jirasya krsnasya tu nitya-muktatvam eva. Bhāva-vilāsini (p. 179) on Yukti-mallikā.
ekasj'aita mamāmśasya jīvasyaivam mahāmate bandhasyāvidyayānādi vidyayā ca tathetarah swa-bhinnāmasya jīvākhyā ajasyaikasya kevalam bandhaś ca bandhan mokşaś ca na svasyety āha sa prabhuh.
Yukti-mallikā, p. 179. The Bhāra-vilāsini (p. 185) also points out that, though God has His wives and body and His heavenly abode in Vaikuntha, yet He has nothing to tie Himself with these; for these are not of prakti-stuff, and, as He has no trace of the gunas of prakrti, He is absolutely free; only a tie of prakştı-stuff can be a tie or bondage But prakrti cannot affect Him; for He is her master-mama gunā vastūni ca śruti-smrtiņu aprākrtatay'ā prasiddhāh. It may be noted in this connection that the Madhva system applies the term māyā in three distinct senses: (i) as God's will (harer icchă); (ii) as the material prakrti (māyākhyā prakstir jadā); and (iii) māyā or mahā-māyā or avidyā, as the cause of illusions and mistakes (bhramahetuś ca māyaikā māyeyain trividhā matā). Yukti-mallikā, p. 188. There is another view which supposes māyā to be of five kinds; it adds God's power (sakti) and influence (tejas).
3 This stuff is said to be infinitely more powdery than the atoms of the Naiyāyikas (tārkikābhimata-paramānuto'py ananta-gunita-sūksma-reņumayr). Bhāva-vilasini, p. 189. The Srimad-bhāgavata, which is considered by Madhva
(p. 179)
ekasyaituácidyayang
