Theories Of Parinama

Author(s): Indukala H Jhaveri
Publisher: Gujarat University

Page 73

Development of Parinama in Yogasūtrus
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other provided the necessary collocations of the atoms could be arranged. The changes or modifications only give expression to the latent varieties of the substance. As the atoms change their position by their innate rajas or energy, the substance changes its form and manifests diverse new qualities which could not be perceived before. But still such a change is not possible to an unlimited degree, for in the constitution of the relations of the gunas there are limitations and obstacles which cannot be overstepped. These limitations may generally be counted in the phencmenal world of change, as being of the nature of time, space, form and disposing cause. Thus Kashmere being the country of saffron, it does not grow in the Pāñcāla country, even though the other causes of its growth may be present there. Similarly there are no rains in the summer season, therefore the growth of rice is not possible in that season; so also the form of a man cannot take its rise from that of a deer. Thus, though all things are intrinsically the same yet the obstacles to change, of the constitution of the gunas in the formation of different substances in certain directions, are such that these cannot be removed, and so those modifications though theoretically possible will ever remain a practical impossibility.
This brings us to the relation of case and effect and the part which is played by concomitant conditions in transforming the cause into the effect. We know that there is no other difference between cause and effect than this that the former is only the po. tential state of which the latter is the actual. The sum of material causes is only the vehicle of the power which is eficient in the production. The concomitant conditions are said to help the effectuation of this transformation from the potential to the actual state. Thus the work of the sculptor may be regarded as the concomitant condition which transforms a piece of marble into a statue. The oilman has helped the oil which was already in existence in the mustard to manifest itself as such. Thus, looked at from this point of view, all concomitant causes may be regarded as helping the passage of the effect from its potentiality as the cause, into the effect as an actuality'.29
29 Yoga Pilosophy, Das Gupta, pp. 209-211.
This expo.ition is based on VB. III. 14, TVS III. 14, YV IV. 12 and