________________
INTRODUCTION
33
verse. It is not the God; since it is said to be without intelligence, mere dead Matter equipped with certain potentialıtıes due to the Guņas. In short, Prakrti is the one rootless Root of the Universe (objective as well as subjective) imbued with the three Attributes and evolving through these, every kind of entity-save the Purusa, Spirit.
The next point that we have to consider is---How do the Sārökhyas prove the existence, the rootlessness, and eternality of this Prakrtı? Is it necessary to postulate such a rootless root, itself unmanifested, and yet manifesting all objective and subjective entities? Proofs of this are given at length in all works on the Carikhya Philosophy, and it will not be altogether out of place here briefly to sum them up. But before we take up this, it is necessary to explain the Sānkhya doctrine of causality, the point on which rests the whole fabric of the system. What then is the cause and how is it related to the effect? Cause is defined as a substance in which the effect subsists in a latent form.. Thus the effect must be said to be eternally existent-primarily in a latent condition, in the cause, and latterly manifesting itself and then commonly recogrized as the effect. How to prove that the effect has been lying latent in the cause and has not been newly prcduced by the cause ?
Firstly.-What is a nonentity can never be made an entity. That is to say--that which has never existed can never be brought into existence. What remains to be done by the operation of the cause is the manifestation of the effect-that is to say, its manifestation as the effect of the particular causc. And this kind of manısestation we find in the produclion of oil from the different oil-seeds wherein it has been hitherto lying latent.
Secondly.-We find that the effect is always in one way or the other related to the cause. Now, this relation would not be possible if the effect were a nonentity :
