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The Net Essence of the Various Positions Regarding God
change. That is to say, what undergoes a transformation necessarily undergoes a change. Hence with a view to keeping the changelessness of Brahman in tact he dubs transformations as a doing of the capacities inherent in Bra hman. Such capacities inherent in Brahman are supposed to be many in number. The view of Śrī Vallabhacarya is called the doctrine of 'transformation-undergoing-no-change (=avikṛtapariņāmavāda)'; the secret of this expression verily lies revealed in the present statement of Srikantba. If Śrikantha identifies transformation with change then his net conclusion would be that Brahman-undergoing-transformation is Brahman-undergoing-change. Since Vallabhacārya advocates the doctrine that Brahman is something undergoing transformation one could easily charge him with advocating the doctrine that Brahman is something undergoing change. Possibly, it was with a view to saving himself from a charge like this that he calls his doctrine one which posits transformation-undergoing-no-change, 22
The Net Essence of the Various Positions Regarding God
The somewhat detailed discussion as to the element God that has been undertaken above has for its net essence the following points:
1. Among the atomists there are two chief groups of traditions. Thus the Jaina and Buddhist traditions, even while advocating atomism attribute no role whatsoever to God in the form of an independent individual. On the other hand, the traditions like Nyaya-Vaiśesika etc. do attribute to God an independent role but they establish him as a mere efficient-cause of the world.
2. Within the Sankhya tradition positing one original element those who posit twenty-four or twenty-five elements do not at all attribute any role to God, but the Sankhya-Yoga tradition positing twenty six elements in all does posit God in the form of an independent element, and yet conceives him as a mere efficient-cause of the world.
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3. All the Vedantist traditions advocating the doctrine of Brahman, while positing one original element are different from the tradition positing Pradhana, treat Brahman as a material-cause as well as an efficient-cause of the world and establish the same in the form of God. Some Vedantists describe such Brahman only under ordinary designations like 'God', 'Supreme God' etc. but others describe it also under sectarian designations like "Nārāyaṇa', 'Visnu', 'Siva' etc. But they all in one form or another, raise their doctrinal superstructure on the basis of the element Brahman alone.
.kāraṇavikrtirūpatvāt pariņāmasya, -Śrikaṇṭhabhasya 1.1.5
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