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xxxı) The Categories
333 as eternally pervasive and the cause and support of all things. Time is the first cause that disturbs the equilibrium of the gunas. The sun, the moon, etc., are its adhibhautika forms, the atoms are its ādhyatmika form, and God is its ādhidaivika form. The time that the sun takes in passing an atom is the time-atom; being thus too small it cannot be any further divided. It is only by the conglomeration of the smallest time-units that long spans of time are produced; for time is not one whole of an all-pervasive character of which the smaller units of time are parts.
Karma or action of all descriptions is regarded as universal; it only manifests itself in diverse forms and specific conditions as specific actions of this or that individual. Since it is this universal karma that manifests itself as different actions of diverse men, it is unnecessary to admit adȚşta as a separate category belonging to self, which remains after the destruction of a karma and gives its fruit after a remote time; it is also unnecessary to admit dharma and adharma as important categories; for they are all included in the concept of this universal karma, which manifests itself in diverse forms under diverse conditions. The application of the terms dharma and adharma is thus only the method of logical interest; it thus explains how the specific can produce svarga without the intermediary of adışta, or how the karma of one person (putrești, "sacrifice") can produce fruit in another, i.e., the son. How a karma should manifest itself in its fruits or with reference to the performer and other persons is determined by the conditions and as explained in the scriptures; the production of a fruit in specific forms in specific centres does not mean its destruction but its disappearance?.
Svabhāva ("nature") is admitted as a separate category. It also is identified with God; its function consists in the inducement of God's will. It is therefore defined as that which produces change (pariņāma-hetutvam tal-laksanam); it is universal and reveals itself by itself before all other things. There may, however, be subtle
changes which are not at first noticeable; but, when they become manifest, they presume the function of svabhāva, without which they could not have come about. It is from this that the twenty
i tal-lakṣaṇam ca vidhi-nisedha-prakāreņa laukika-kriyābhiḥ pradeśato'bhivyañjana-yogya vyāpikā kriyeti... etenaitādrstasyāpyātma-gunatvam nirākrtam reditavyam. evamcāpurtādrstadharmādharmādipadairapidamevocyate. atah sādhāranye pi phala-vyavasthopapatter na karma-nănātvamity api. dāna-himsādau tu dharmādharmādi-prayogo' bhivyañjakatvopādhina bhāktaḥ. Ibid. pp. 168-9.
