s yet[417].--How, then, it may be asked, do you--the
Vedantins--establish the relation of cause and effect (between the Lord
and the world)?--There is, we reply, no difficulty in our case, as the
connexion we assume is that of identity (tadatmya). The adherent of
Brahman, moreover, defines the nature of the cause, and so on, on the
basis of Scripture, and is therefore not obliged to render his tenets
throughout conformable to observation. Our adversary, on the other hand,
who defines the nature of the cause and the like according to instances
furnished by experience, may be expected to maintain only such doctrines
as agree with experience. Nor can he put forward the claim that
Scripture, because it is the production of the omniscient Lord, may be
used to confirm his doctrine as well as that of the Vedantin; for that
would involve him in a logical see-saw, the omniscience of the Lord
being established on the doctrine of Scripture, and the authority of
Scripture again being established on the omniscience of the Lord.--For
all these reasons the Sa@nkhya-yoga hypothesis about the Lord is devoid
of foundation. Other similar hypotheses which likewise are not based on
the Veda are to be refuted by corresponding arguments.

39. And on account of the impossibility of rulership (on the part of the
Lord).

The Lord of the argumentative philosophers is an untenable hypothesis,
for the following reason also.--Those philosophers are obliged to assume
that by his influence the Lord produces action in the pradhana, &c. just
as the potter produces motion in the clay, &c. But this cannot be
admitted; for the pradhana, which is devoid of colour and other
qualities, and therefore not an object of perception, is on that account
of an altogether different nature from clay and the like, and hence
cannot be looked upon as the object of the Lord's action.

40. If you say that as the organs (are ruled by the soul so the pradhana
is ruled by the Lord), we deny that on account of the enjoyment, &c.

Well, the opponent might reply, let us suppose that the Lord rules the
pradhana in the same way as the soul rules the organ of sight and the
other organs which are devoid of colour, and so on, and hence not
objects of perception.

This analogy also, we reply, proves nothing. For we infer that the
organs are ruled by the soul, from the observed fact that the soul feels
pleasure, pain, and the like (which affect the soul through the organs).
But we