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Matter
that this Anavastha or infinite regression must be made to end somewhere; for otherwise a mustard seed and the Sumeru mountain both of which were premised to be infinitely divisible, would be of the same mass and density. At a certain stage then, we are bound to have the atoms which are reals and which are the last limits to the process of analysis of matter. On the other hand, there were some thinkers of the Buddhist school who denied the reality of atoms and contended that the process of analysis and subdivision of a gross material substance would at last bring us face to face with the Sunya i.e. the absolute void or nothing. The Vedanta school, on the contrary, rejected this nihilistic position but at the same time criticised the theory of atoms. Samkara, for instance, takes up for consideration the Vaiśesika contention that the atoms are the ultimate substances which have no parts and as such, they are neither generated nor destroyed. The Vaiśeşika view is based on the assumption that things come into existence when their parts are united, and are destroyed when their parts are separated. Samkara points out that origination does not necessarily consist in a joining together of parts nor annihilation, in their separation. Ice and curd, for instance, are formed out of water and milk although no new parts or substances are added to them. Similarly, on the application of fire, butter and gold are destroyed (i.e. their hardness is annihilated) although there is no question of separation of parts here. Annihilation, according to Samkara, is thus not a mere sundering of parts but a return to the causal state 'Karaṇabhāvāpatti', as he calls it. Origination similarly, is not a joining together of parts but a development or evolution from the causal substance. The Vaiśeşika's admit, for instance, the eternal existence of an infinite number of Parthiva Paramāņu's or earth-atoms. Samkara points out that these atoms are admittedly of one and the same class. This shows that a still more elemental substance Pṛthvi, transcending these atoms underlies them, which is their Kāraṇa or causal basis. We may therefore very well conceive of the origination as well as the decay of atoms,
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