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XXXI The nature of Brahman
327 mass of atoms depends upon their number, as they are partless; the numerical conception is dependent upon relative mental comparison on the part of the perceiver; at the time of creation there must have been some one by whose numerical conception the accretion of mass is possible. This is the ninth anumāna (samkhyānumāna). Though God is regarded as the cause of the world, yet He need not have a body; for cause as producer does not necessarily involve the possession of a body; there are others, however, who think that God produces special bodies, the avatāra of Rāma, Krsna, etc., by which He acts in special ways.
Vijñāna-bhikṣu, however, thinks that the Sāmkhya categories of buddhi, etc., being products, presume the existence of their previous causes, about which there must be some intuitive knowledge, and whose purpose is served by it; such a person is Išvara. The procedure consists in inferring first an original cause (the prakrti) of the categories, and God is He who has direct knowledge of the prakrti by virtue of which He modifies it to produce the categories. and thus employs it for His own purpose.
There are some who hold that even in the Upanişadic texts there are instances of inferring the nature of Brahman, and though Bādarāyaṇa does not indulge in any inferences himself, he deals with such texts as form their basis. The point of view of the syllogists has been that the inferences are valid inasmuch as they are in consonance with the Upanisad texts. But Vallabha agrees with Rāmānuja and Bhāskara that no inference is possible about the existence of God, and that His nature can only be known through the testimony of the Upanişadic texts?.
The nature of Brahman. Brahman is both the material and instrumental cause of the world. There is no diversity of opinion regarding the Brahman as the instrumental (nimitta) cause of the world, but there is difference of opinion whether Brahman is its creator or whether He is its material cause, since the Vedānta does not admit the relation of samavāya, the view that Brahman is the inherent (samavāyi) cause of the world. The objection against Brahman being the samavāyi
1 The commentator Puruşottama offers a criticism of the theistic arguments after the manner of Rāmānuja. Commentary on Anubhāşya, pp. 74-8.
