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VEDÂNTA-SÚTRAS.
if the origination of all effects is) thence (i.e. from Brahman).
The 'but' has an asseverative sense. The direct origination from Brahman of all effects—which in passages such as the one quoted by the Parvapakshin is stated in a form the reverse of the (true) order of origination according to which the Unevolved, the Mahat, the ahankara, Ether, and so on, succeed each other-is possible only on the supposition of the origination of each effect being really from Brahman itself in the form of a special causal substance. To understand the causality of Brahman as a merely mediate one would be to contradict all those statements of immediate origination. Texts such as the one quoted thus confirm the conclusion that everything originates from Brahman directly.
16. If it be said that knowledge and mind (which are mentioned) between (breath and the elements) (are stated) in order of succession, owing to an inferential mark of this; we say, not so, on account of non-difference.
Knowledge' in the Satra denotes the means of knowledge, i.e. the sense-organs.-An objection is raised against the conclusion arrived at under the preceding Satra. We cannot, the opponent says, admit the conclusion that the passage from the Mundaka Up. 'from him is born breath, mind,' &c., declares the immediate origination from Brahman of all things, and that hence the passage confirms the view, first suggested by the inferential mark of thought' (see above, SQ. 14), that everything springs from Brahman direct. For the purport of the text is to state a certain order of succession, and we hence conclude that all the beings mentioned were successively created. In the second half of the text we recognise the series of ether, air, fire, &c., which is known to us from other texts, and from the fact of their being exhibited in one and the same text we conclude that knowledge and mind-which are mentioned between breath on the one side and the elements on the
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