CHAPTER II.

ATMAN AS THE FIRST CAUSE.

Second Stanza of the Hymn.

To Him who, like unto a magician, or even like unto a mighty Yogin, displays by His own will this universe, undifferentiated in the beginning like the plant within the seed, but made afterwards picturesque in all its variety in combination with space and time created by Maya, to Him who is incarnate in the Teacher, to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South, to Him (Siva) be this bow!

In the preceding chapter it has been shown that the whole external universe has really no existence independent of the Self, that it appears by Maya as though external to the Self. This chapter proceeds to establish the Vedic doctrine that Atman is the First Cause of the universe, by way of refuting the theories which maintain that the material cause of the universe is something else really existent, and independent of Atman.

Vaiseshika's Atomic theory.

1. The paramanus, the extremely small atoms, combined together, constitute the upadana or material cause of the universe. Hence it is that a pot manifests itself in constant association with clay, but not with Isvara.

It is the indivisible extremely subtle things called paramanus which, combining together in various ways, give rise to the universe comprising all created objects with their attributes and activities. We speak of a substance as the upadana or material cause of other things when it is found invariably associated with them, and upon whose existence the existence of those other things depends. Nothing in

our experience is thus invariably found associated with Atman, the Self, or Isvara. On the other hand, every created object is found invariably associated with something other than Atman, with something or other which is insentient. A pot, for instance, is invariably associated with clay. Hence the conclusion that the insentient atoms, not the sentient Isvara nor His Maya, are the material cause of the universe.

2. It is the qualities, such as colour, taste, etc., inherent in the atoms themselves, which produce qualities of a kindred sort in the effect separately.

Thus, the atoms and their qualities give rise to all objects in creation as well as their qualities, so that Isvara is not the material cause either of the substances or of their qualities.

Vaiseshika's threefold cause.

3. That with which the effect is intimately associated is the samavayi-karana, the inseparable or material cause, as.

opposed to the accessories such as the potter's wheel, which belong to a category different from the samavayi-karana.

4. That is said to be the asamavayi-karana, the accidental or separable cause, which, while quite necessary to produce the effect, resides in the samavayi, or in the substratum of the samavayi.

5. An efficient (nimitta) cause of all effects is Isvara, like the potter.