वेदान्त पारिजात सौरभ (भगवद् निम्बार्काचार्य - द्वैताद्वैत वेदान्त ब्रह्मसूत्र भाष्य सटीक)

[sū. 1. 4. 23.
ADH. 7.] VEDĀNTA-KAUSTUBHA 259
the initial proposition and the illustration. The initial proposition,
to begin with, is as follows: '"Did you ask for that instruction whereby
the unheard becomes heard, the unthought thought, the unknown
known ?'" (Chānd. 6.1.3). The meaning of this text is as follows:
O son Śvetaketu! Did you ask for that 'instruction', i.e. that
instructor, viz. the Supreme Soul, 'whereby', i.e. through hearing
of whom from the preceptor, even what is unheard becomes heard,
what is unthought becomes thought, what is unknown becomes
known ? It is known from this initial proposition that the Supreme
Soul is the material cause, since the hearing and the rest of the effects
is justifiable only through the hearing and the rest of the material
cause. The illustration given is as follows: '"Just as, my dear, through
a lump of clay, all objects made of clay may be known"' (Chānd.
6.1.4) and so on. It is known from this illustration that the Supreme
Soul is the material cause of the object illustrated as well (viz. clay)
A potter has not been cited in the illustration; and through a potter
being known, a pot cannot be known. But a lump of clay being known,
all objects made of clay, like pots and the rest, may, indeed, be known.
To the contention, viz. that in the world of ordinary experience
sentient beings like potters and the rest are found to be efficient
causes merely,—we reply: We do not arrive at the cause of the world
by means of inference and the rest, and so, for us, there is no need for
the illustration of a potter. But discarding all evidences contrary
to the Veda, we follow what is mentioned by Scripture and the pre-
ceptor ¹. Moreover, in the world of ordinary experience, too, we see
that a sentient person is the material cause of the effects like hairs,
body-hairs and the rest; that a spider is the material cause of the
web, and so on. We read in Scripture, too: 'Just as hairs and body-
hairs (arise) from a person, just as a spider creates and takes' (Muṇḍ.
1.1.7 ²). If it be objected that in the above cases, the material
causes containing elements, suitable for giving rise to the effects,—(we
reply:) in the subject of our discussion, too, there is God's self-power,
called prakṛti.
¹ Vide V.K. 1.1.3
² Correct quotation:
'Yathā ūrṇa-nābhiḥ sṛjate gṛhṇate ca
Yathā pṛthivyām oṣadhayaḥ sambhavanti.
Yathā sataḥ puruṣāt keśa-lomāni', etc. Vide Muṇḍ. 1.1.7, p. 9.