from the material cause. On the other hand, effects
are not non-different from their operative causes;
for we know from ordinary experience that the carpenter,
for instance, is different from the house he has built.—The
illustrative example referred to is the one mentioned
(Ch. Up. VI, 1, 4), ’My dear, as by
one clod of clay all that is made of clay is known,
the modification (i.e. the effect) being a name merely
which has its origin in speech, while the truth is
that it is clay merely;’ which passage again
has reference to the material cause. The text
adds a few more illustrative instances of similar
nature, ’As by one nugget of gold all that is
made of gold is known; as by one pair of nail-scissors
all that is made of iron is known.’—Similar
promissory statements are made in other places also,
for instance, ’What is that through which if
it is known everything else becomes known?’
(Mu. Up. I, 1, 3.) An illustrative instance
also is given in the same place, ‘As plants
grow on the earth’ (I, 1, 7).—Compare
also the promissory statement in B/ri/. Up.
IV, 5, 6, ’When the Self has been seen, heard,
perceived, and known, then all this is known;’
and the illustrative instance quoted (IV, 5, 8), ’Now
as the sounds of a drum if beaten cannot be seized
externally, but the sound is seized when the drum
is seized or the beater of the drum.’—Similar
promissory statements and illustrative instances which
are to be found in all Vedanta-texts are to be viewed
as proving, more or less, that Brahman is also the
material cause of the world. The ablative case
also in the passage, ‘That from whence (yata/h/)
these beings are born,’ has to be considered
as indicating the material cause of the beings, according
to the grammatical rule, Pa/n/. I, 4, 30.—That
Brahman is at the same time the operative cause of
the world, we have to conclude from the circumstance
that there is no other guiding being. Ordinarily
material causes, indeed, such as lumps of clay and
pieces of gold, are dependent, in order to shape themselves
into vessels and ornaments, on extraneous operative
causes such as potters and goldsmiths; but outside
Brahman as material cause there is no other operative
cause to which the material cause could look; for
Scripture says that previously to creation Brahman
was one without a second.—The absence of
a guiding principle other than the material cause
can moreover be established by means of the argument
made use of in the Sutra, viz. accordance with
the promissory statements and the illustrative examples.
If there were admitted a guiding principle different
from the material cause, it would follow that everything
cannot be known through one thing, and thereby the
promissory statements as well as the illustrative instances
would be stultified.—The Self is thus the
operative cause, because there is no other ruling
principle, and the material cause because there is
no other substance from which the world could originate.
24. And on account of the statement of reflection (on the part of the Self).