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THE SIDDITANTA
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unintelligibility. Would a pauper who claimed credit on the ground that he owned and possessed untold wealth, but was only ignorant of its whereabouts, derive any benefit from his millions ? The same is the case with mythology, which, as stated above, has given rise to the worst forms of ill-feeling amongst men.
As regards the first kind of the causes of misunderstanding, it is sufficient to point out that none of the religions that we have examined hitherto is characterised by perfection. Vedanta, for instance, leaves us with Brahman and Maya, and gives little or no help in constructing a world of matter and force with their aid. Of Time, Space and Causality it has no explanation to offer. Nor are we given an insight into the mechanism of Maya, which is supposed to be responsible for the world-process in some mysterious way.
The final causes of the world must, then, be sought for and described in terms which make further thought possible. The theory that the universe is a bundle of names and forms is very useful in so far as it goes, and we hope we have accorded it the fullest latitude which it is entitled to; but the problem of the nature of the material and the operative cause or causes, which stamp on it the variety of names and forms, still remains to be solved.
Bearing in mind the fact that the world-process is eternal, and that concrete things, whether they be called thought-forms or actual objects, must have some sort of material basis for their being, we may lay down that the existing material of the universe consists of two different kinds of substances, the living, i.e., self-conscious, and
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