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VEDANTA-SUTRAS.
and the sense of taste in so far as 'anna' may be also explained as that by means of which eating goes on (adyate). 'Of mind' denotes mind, i. e. the so-called internal organ. Taste and smell thus being taken in combination, we have the required number of five, and we thus explain the five-people' as the sense-organs which throw light on their objects, together with the internal organ, i. e. mind. The meaning of the clause about the 'five-people' therefore is that the senses-called 'five-people'-and the elements, represented by the Ether, have their basis in Brahman; and as thus all beings are declared to abide in Brahman, the five 'five-people' can in no way be the twenty-five categories assumed by the Sânkhyas.-The general conclusion is that the Vedanta-texts, whether referring to numbers or not, nowhere set forth the categories established in Kapila's system.
14. And on account of (Brahman) as described being declared to be the cause with regard to Ether, and so on.
Here the philosopher who holds the Pradhâna to be the general cause comes forward with another objection. The Vedanta-texts, he says, do not teach that creation proceeds from one and the same agent only, and you therefore have no right to hold that Brahman is the sole cause of the world. In one place it is said that our world proceeded from 'Being,' 'Being only this was in the beginning' (Kh. Up. VI, 2, 1). In other places the world is said to have sprung from 'Non-being,' 'Non-being indeed this was in the beginning' (Taitt. Up. II, 7, 1); and 'Non-being only was this in the beginning; it became Being' (Kh. Up. III, 19, 1). As the Vedânta-texts are thus not consequent in their statements regarding the creator, we cannot conclude from them that Brahman is the sole cause of the world. On the other hand, those texts do enable us to conclude that the Pradhana only is the universal cause. For the text Now all this was then undeveloped' (Bri. Up. I, 4, 7) teaches that the world was merged in the undeveloped Pradhâna, and the subsequent
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