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Updated: May 5, 2025
We have so far determined that it is in no way unreasonable to hold that the highest Brahman, which is all-knowing, capable of realising its purposes, &c., has all beings, sentient and non-sentient, for its body, and hence constitutes the Self of all and differs in nature from everything else.
It further is matter of experience that whatever consists of non-sentient matter is dependent on, or ruled by, a single intelligent principle. The former generalization is exemplified by the case of jars and similar things, and the latter by a living body in good health, which consists of non-intelligent matter dependent on an intelligent principle.
"What Darwin's book on the Origin of Species is on the subject of the genesis and evolution of organic life from non-sentient nature up to Man, the work of Marx is on the subject of the genesis and evolution of association among human beings, of States and the social forms of humanity."
The origination of the jiva is, moreover, distinctly controverted in the books of the Bhagavatas also. Thus in the Parama-samhita 'The nature of Prakriti consists therein that she is non-sentient, for the sake of another, eternal, ever-changing, comprising within herself the three gunas and constituting the sphere of action and experience for all agents.
The material world is related to Brahman as the coils to the snake, 'on account of twofold designation. For some texts declare the identity of the two: 'Brahman only is all this'; 'The Self only is all this. Other texts again refer to the difference of the two: 'Having entered into these three deities with this jiva-self, let me differentiate names and forms. We therefore consider all non-sentient things to be special forms or arrangements of Brahman, as the coils are of a coiled-up snake or a coiled-up rope.
In the same way souls as well as non-sentient matter stand to Brahman in the relation of parts. And on account of denial. Up. Up. From this it follows that the relation of the two can only be that of distinguishing attribute and thing distinguished, and hence of part and whole.
One substance may indeed connect itself with several states, but the former of the two alternatives implies that Brahman itself constitutes the essential nature of non-sentient matter, and thus there is no escape from the objections already stated under Sutra 27.
Although the soul consists of mere intelligence and is inactive, while the Pradhana is destitute of all power of thought; yet the non-sentient Pradhana may begin to act owing to the mere nearness of the soul. For we observe parallel instances.
Now, on the principle of the non-difference of cause and effect, this initial statement can only be fulfilled in that way that through the knowledge of the 'Sat', which is the cause, there is known the entire world, whether sentient or non-sentient, which constitutes the effect.
The reasons for this decision are as follows: Colour and so on reside in the gross forms of non-intelligent matter, viz. the elements, earth, and so on. When, therefore, visibility and so on are expressly negatived, such negation suggests a non-sentient thing cognate to earth, &c., but of a subtle kind, and such a thing is no other than the Pradhana.
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