Sramana Tradation

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 82

Śramanic Critique of Brahmanism
affirming that God's knowledge being the true knowledge of reality continues to be Pramā. Prama is not to be defined either by agrhitagrāhijnānatva nor by Pramanajanyatva but only by Yatharthanubhava which is independent of another experience.
Finally Udayana sums up the positive arguments for the existence of God in the famous verse -
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'karyayojanadhṛtyadeḥ padat pratyayataḥ śruteḥ vākyāt samkhyāviśeṣācca sădhyo viśvavidavyayaḥ ||'
Here eight reasons have been adduced to prove the existence of God. The eight syllogisms may be rendered thus - (1) The world consisting of the earth etc., has a maker because it is a product like the pot. (2) The initial motion of atoms at the beginning of creation presupposes voluntary effort since it is a movement like that of our own bodies. (3) The solar and celestial system are held in a fixed position in space by a force which presupposes effort. (4) Linguistic and social behaviour is acquired in a tradition which must have been originated by some first person. (5) The authority of the Vedas implies a reliable person from whom the Vedas must have proceeded. (6) The Vedas being compositions must owe their origin to a person who is God. (7) Vedic sentences imply a person as their author. (8) The law of numbers operates in the formation of compounds from atoms at the beginning of creation but since numbers are inconceivable without a mind which relates objects, there must have been a superhuman mind to explain the efficacy of numbers at that time when no human mind existed.
This last argument needs some explanation. On the Nyaya theory the magnitude of composite products arises in three different ways. It may arise from the summation of constituent magnitudes (parimāṇayoni) or it may arise from the interstitial spaces between the constituents (pracayasithilavayavasamyoga) or it may arise from the number or plurality of constituents (samkhyāyoni). When the atoms form an aggregate or binary compounds of atoms combine further to form Tryanukas an increase in magnitude takes place. Now what is its cause? The normal rule is that the aggregation of magnitudes increases the magnitudes in their own original kind. Thus the combination of