samsara comes to an end. Gradually all souls obtain release, and so
there will finally be an end of the entire sa/m/sara and the sa/m/sara
state of all souls. But the pradhana which is ruled by the Lord and
which modifies itself for the purposes of the soul is what is meant by
sa/m/sara. Hence, when the latter no longer exists, nothing is left for
the Lord to rule, and his omniscience and ruling power have no longer
any objects. But if the pradhana, the souls, and the Lord, all have an
end, it follows that they also have a beginning, and if they have a
beginning as well as an end, we are driven to the doctrine of a general
void.--Let us then, in order to avoid these untoward conclusions,
maintain the second alternative, i.e. that the measure of the Lord
himself, the pradhana, and the souls, is not defined by the Lord.--But
that also is impossible, because it would compel us to abandon a tenet
granted at the outset, viz. that the Lord is omniscient.

For all these reasons the doctrine of the argumentative philosophers,
according to which the Lord is the operative cause of the world, appears
unacceptable.

42. On account of the impossibility of the origination (of the
individual soul from the highest Lord, the doctrine of the Bhagavatas
cannot be accepted).

We have, in what precedes, refuted the opinion of those who think that
the Lord is not the material cause but only the ruler, the operative
cause of the world. We are now going to refute the doctrine of those
according to whom he is the material as well as the operative
cause.--But, it may be objected, in the previous portions of the present
work a Lord of exactly the same nature, i.e. a Lord who is the material,
as well as the operative, cause of the world, has been ascertained on
the basis of Scripture, and it is a recognised principle that Sm/ri/ti,
in so far as it agrees with Scripture, is authoritative; why then should
we aim at controverting the doctrine stated?--It is true, we reply, that
a part of the system which we are going to discuss agrees with the
Vedanta system, and hence affords no matter for controversy; another
part of the system, however, is open to objection, and that part we
intend to attack.

The so-called Bhagavatas are of opinion that the one holy (bhagavat)
Vasudeva, whose nature is pure knowledge, is what really exists, and
that he, dividing himself fourfold, appears in four forms (vyuha), as
Vasudeva, Sa@nkarsha/n/a, Pradyumna, and Ani