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LOKĀYATA-MATERIALISM.
909
TEXTS (1893-1896). IF THE COGNITION IN SOME OTHER CHAIN BE HELD TO BE THE CAUSE
(OF THE FIRST COGNITION), THEN THE QUESTION IS) IS THAT THE MATERIAL CAUSE OF IT, OR THE CONTRIBUTORY CAUSE'-IF IT IS MEANT TO BE THE MATERIAL CAUSE, THEN THE LEARNING AND CULTURE OF THE PARENTS SHOULD CONTINUE IN THE CHILD'S
CHAIN OF COGNITIONS' THAT SUCH IS THE NATURE OF THE MATERIAL CAUSE AND ITS EFFECT HAS BEEN ASCERTAINED, THROUGH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE CONCOMITANOE, IN CONNECTION WITH ONE'S OWN CHAIN' -IF, ON THE OTHER HAND, THE COGNITION OF THE OTHER CHAIN' BE ASSUMED TO BE THE CONTRIBUTORY CAUSE, OF THE FIRST COGNITION, ON THE BASIS OF ITS OWN MATERIAL CAUSE-THEN THERE WOULD BE NOTHING WRONG IN IT.-(18931896)
COMMENTARY.
Would this Cognition occurring in another Chain', i.e. the Chain of Cognitions of the Parents-be the Material Cause or the Contributory Cause (of the First Cognition under consideration) ?-It cannot be the Material Cause ; as, in that case, it would be possible for the peculiar learning and culture of the Parents to continue in the Son ; just as the Parents' Cognition continues in their own subsequent cognitions. It has been found in the case of all Material Causes and their Products that the embellishments of the preceding moment continue in the succeeding 'Moments'; this having been found, by positive and negative concomitance, to be the case is one's own Chain
The following might be the opinion suggested—" When one lamp is lighted from another Lamp the second lamp is not produced as equipped with the size and other embellishments of the first one, it is produced merely as a lamp without any embellishments ; it acquires its own embellishments from other sources in the shape of its own wick and oil, etc. ;-and the same may be the case with the Cognition in question also ".
That cannot be so; because the embellishment of the Lamp sets up a * chain' in its own substratum also; because it is itself evanescent; that is the reason why on the exhaustion of the 'fuel' (in the shape of the oil and wick), the Lamp ceases to exist. The embellishment of Learning and Culture however is not evanescent; as it continues for a long time. Hence it is not possible for mere Cognition without embellishments to be produced in the manner of the Lamp.
Further, in the case of the Lamp and other things, the presence or absence of peculiarities is determined on the basis of their being aggregates of larger and less number of atoms; of the single thing, as a mere entity, there cannot be either presence or absence of peculiarities. In the case in question however, the single entity, the Cognition in the mother, would have the peculiarities of the cultural and other embellishments, while when appearing in the son, it would be without these peculiarities; who can impart such a teaching ?