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INDIAN PHILOSOPHY "No, (Isvara is not the cause of fruits), because if a living being does not perform actions, it cannot attain fruits.
The principle enunciated in the preceding aphorism is wrong, because if the cause of fruits were not actions, but Isvara, then we should attain fruits without performing actions. We never reach the desination, if we do not walk. We are not cured of the disease if we do not take medicine. So fruits depend on actions and not on Isvara. There is no need of Isvara. Actions done, fruits attained. If a seed of a banyan tree comes in contact of the soil, water, etc., it will definitely grow into a banyan tree; no agent is required. Depending on the cause, the effect comes into being. If a person takes deadly poison, he will certainly die, no agent is required to exert poison to do its work. If one performs an action, he will definitely attain its fruit: Where is the necessity for positing an agent Isvara?
Tatkāritatvād ahetuh / (4.2.21) 'Because Isvara exhorts one to perform actions and attain their fruits, both the views enunciated in the preceding two aphorisms do not have the support of a logical reason.'
This aphorism presents Gautama's own view. It is as follows: The two views which we have explained are wrong. One neglects and rejects the necessary relation obtaining between actions and fruits, another neglects and rejects Isvara. As a matter of fact, there does obtain a necessary relation between actions and fruits. If one performs an action, that action does give him its fruit. It is true that for fruition, action does not require Isvara. But one should know as to which action be performed to attain a desired fruit: A person desirous of a particular fruit should have the knowledge as to which action entails which fruit. It is true that deadly poison causes death. But one who wants to commit suicide by taking poison should have knowledge that a particular substance is highly poisonous. If he does not possess that knowledge, and as a result takes any substance, he will not die. A particular medicine is very effective on a particular disease. If with this knowledge a patient takes that medicine, it will cure him of the disease, and it will not require any doctor to exert it to work. The doctor is required only to impart knowledge to the patient as to which medicine he should take for the cure of the disease he is suffering from. The patient earnestly desires to get rid of the disease. But for that, what action is proper, that is, which medicine is to be taken, he does not know. That knowledge is
