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I ADHYAYA, 4 PÅDA, 23.
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ruled by him, which is non-intelligent and undergoes changes, and the two together only they represent as the cause of the world. This view is conveyed by the following texts, who is without parts, without actions, tranquil, without fault, without taint' (Svet. Up. VI, 18); This great unborn Self, undecaying, undying' (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 25); 'He knows her who produces all effects, the non-knowing one, the unborn one, wearing eight forms, the firm one. Ruled by him she is spread out, and incited and guided by him gives birth to the world for the benefit of the souls. A cow she is without beginning and end, a mother producing all beings' (see above, p. 363). That the Lord creates this world in so far only as guiding Prakriti, the material cause, we learn from the following text, 'From that the Lord of Mayà creates all this. Know Måyå to be Prakriti and the Lord of Måyå the great Lord' (Svet. Up. IV, 9, 10). And similarly Smriti, with me as supervisor Prakriti brings forth the Universe of the movable and the immovable' (Bha. Gi. IX, 10). Although, therefore, the Pradhana is not expressly stated by Scripture to be the material cause, we must assume that there is such a Pradhana and that, superintended by the Lord, it constitutes the material cause, because otherwise the texts declaring Brahman to be the cause of the world would not be fully intelligible. For ordinary experience shows us on all sides that the operative cause and the material cause are quite distinct : we invariably have on the one side clay, gold, and other material substances which form the material causes of pots, ornaments, and so on, and on the other hand, distinct from them, potters, goldsmiths, and so on, who act as operative causes. And we further observe that the production of effects invariably requires several instrumental agencies. The Vedanta-texts therefore cannot possess the strength to convince us, in open defiance of the two invariable rules, that the one Brahman is at the same time the material and the operative cause of the world; and hence we maintain that Brahman is only the operative but not the material cause, while the material cause is the Pradhana guided by Brahman.
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