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470
VEDÂNTA-SÚTRAS.
in all its states has the souls and matter for its body; when the souls and matter are in their subtle state Brahman is in its causal condition; when, on the other hand, Brahman has for its body souls and matter in their gross state, it is
effected' and then called world. In this way the co-ordination above referred to fully explains itself. The world is non-different from Brahman in so far as it is its effect. There is no confusion of the different characteristic qualities; for liability to change belongs to non-sentient matter, liability to pain to sentient souls, and the possession of all excellent qualities to Brahman: hence the doctrine is not in conflict with any scriptural text. That even in the state of non-separation-described in texts such as, 'Being only this was in the beginning'—the souls joined to non-sentient matter persist in a subtle condition and thus constitute Brahman's body must necessarily be admitted; for that the souls at that time also persist in a subtle form is shown under Satras II, 1, 34; 35. Non-division, at that time, is possible in so far as there is no distinction of names and forms. It follows from all this that Brahman's causality is not contrary to reason.
Those, on the other hand, who explain the difference, referred to in Satra 22, as the difference between the giva in its state of bondage and the giva in so far as free from avidya, i.e. the unconditioned Brahman, implicate themselves in contradictions. For the giva, in so far as free from avidya, is neither all-knowing, nor the Lord of all, nor the cause of all, nor the Self of all, nor the ruler of all-it in fact possesses none of those characteristics on which the scriptural texts found the difference of the released soul; for according to the view in question all those attributes are the mere figment of Nescience. Nor again can the Satra under discussion be said to refer to the distinction, from the individual soul, of a Lord fictitiously created by avidya-a distinction analogous to that which a man in the state of avidyå makes between the shell and the silver ; for it is the task of the Vedanta to convey a knowledge of that true Brahman which is introduced as the object of enquiry in the first Satra ("Now then the enquiry into Brahman')
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