Brahman is the material cause for that reason also that it is spoken of in the sacred texts as the source (yoni); compare, for instance, ’The maker, the Lord, the person who has his source in Brahman’ (Mu.  Up.  III, 1, 3); and ‘That which the wise regard as the source of all beings’ (Mu.  Up.  I, 1, 6).  For that the word ‘source’ denotes the material cause is well known from the use of ordinary language; the earth, for instance, is called the yoni of trees and herbs.  In some places indeed the word yoni means not source, but merely place; so, for instance, in the mantra, ‘A yoni, O Indra, was made for you to sit down upon’ (Rik.  Sa/m/h.  I, 104, 1).  But that in the passage quoted it means ‘source’ follows from a complementary passage, ’As the spider sends forth and draws in its threads,’ &c.—­It is thus proved that Brahman is the material cause of the world.—­Of the objection, finally, that in ordinary life the activity of operative causal agents only, such as potters and the like, is preceded by reflection, we dispose by the remark that, as the matter in hand is not one which can be known through inferential reasoning, ordinary experience cannot be used to settle it.  For the knowledge of that matter we rather depend on Scripture altogether, and hence Scripture only has to be appealed to.  And that Scripture teaches that the Lord who reflects before creation is at the same time the material cause, we have already explained.  The subject will, moreover, be discussed more fully later on.

28.  Hereby all (the doctrines concerning the origin of the world which are opposed to the Vedanta) are explained, are explained.

The doctrine according to which the pradhana is the cause of the world has, in the Sutras beginning with I, 1, 5, been again and again brought forward and refuted.  The chief reason for the special attention given to that doctrine is that the Vedanta-texts contain some passages which, to people deficient in mental penetration, may appear to contain inferential marks pointing to it.  The doctrine, moreover, stands somewhat near to the Vedanta doctrine since, like the latter, it admits the non-difference of cause and effect, and it, moreover, has been accepted by some of the authors of the Dharma-sutras, such as Devala, and so on.  For all these reasons we have taken special trouble to refute the pradhana doctrine, without paying much attention to the atomic and other theories.  These latter theories, however, must likewise be refuted, as they also are opposed to the doctrine of Brahman being the general cause, and as slow-minded people might think that they also are referred to in some Vedic passages.  Hence the Sutrakara formally extends, in the above Sutra, the refutation already accomplished of the pradhana doctrine to all similar doctrines which need not be demolished in detail after their great protagonist, the pradhana doctrine, has been so completely disposed of.  They also are, firstly, not founded on any scriptural authority; and are, secondly, directly contradicted by various Vedic passages.—­The repetition of the phrase ‘are explained’ is meant to intimate that the end of the adhyaya has been reached.