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II ADHYAYA, 2 PÂDA, 42.
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defined by their constituting a triad, and the individual measure of each of them must likewise be considered as defined by the Lord (because he is omniscient). The number of the souls is a high one? From among this limited number of souls some obtain release from the samsára, that means their samsara comes to an end, and their subjection to the samsara comes to an end. Gradually all souls obtain release, and so there will finally be an end of the entire samsåra and the samsåra state of all souls. But the pradhana which is ruled by the Lord and which modifies itself for the purposes of the soul is what is meant by samsára. Hence, when the latter no longer exists, nothing is left for the Lord to rule, and his omniscience and ruling power have no longer any objects. But if the pradhana, the souls, and the Lord, all have an end, it follows that they also have a beginning, and if they have a beginning as well as an end, we are driven to the doctrine of a general void. Let us then, in order to avoid these untoward conclusions, maintain the second alternative, i.e. that the measure of the Lord himself, the pradhana, and the souls, is not defined by the Lord.—But that also is impossible, because it would compel us to abandon a tenet granted at the outset, viz. that the Lord is omniscient.
For all these reasons the doctrine of the argumentative philosophers, according to which the Lord is the operative cause of the world, appears unacceptable.
42. On account of the impossibility of the origination (of the individual soul from the highest Lord, the doctrine of the Bhagavatas cannot be accepted).
We have, in what precedes, rofuted the opinion of those who think that the Lord is not the material cause but only the ruler, the operative cause of the world. We are now
1 I.e. a high one, but not an indefinite one; since the omniscient Lord knows its measure.
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