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

[SŪ 2. 1. 23. ADH. 8] VEDĀNTA-KAUSTUBHA 303 If it be objected. In ordinary life, it is always found that external implements like stick and so on are employed for the production of effects like pots, etc. Hence, Brahman who has no helpers, is not the creator of the world To the question: Whence is this known ? We reply. That Brahman is without any helpers is definitely ascer- tained from the following texts, designating the impossibility of the existence of any kind of agent in the beginning: " 'The existent alone, my dear, was this in the beginning, one only, without a second' " (Chānd. 6.2 1), 'There was, verily, Nārāyaṇa, the one' (Mahā Up. 1.2), "Then there was Viṣṇu, Hari alone, the absolute",— (We reply.) "no". Why? "Because" Brahman is "like milk" Just as in ordinary life milk, water and the rest are transformed into the form of effects like sour milk, ice and so on,—there is no external implement here,—so Brahman, possessed of the sentient and the non- sentient as His powers, is capable of being the one identical material and efficient cause of the world through His very nature He has not to depend on the collection of accessories for creating the world, as declared by the text: "Supreme is His power, declared to be mani- fold; natural is the operation of His knowledge and power" (Śvet 6 8). Whey, on the other hand, is sometimes mixed with milk, simply for giving a certain flavour to it, and not for making it turn sour,¹ because we find that milk turns sour even when whey is absent from it, and that water and the rest do not turn into sour milk even when whey is present in them. It is because the potters and others are mere efficient causes that they have to depend on clay, etc. for making pots, etc.; and it is because they lack the requisite power that they have to depend on the stick, the wheel and so on. Although the facts mentioned in the Veda are ever-established, yet objections are being raised against them again and again for removing the doubts of those who are entitled to the study of it, for silencing the opponent and for making one understand the meaning of the Veda without a vestige of doubt. ¹ This replies to the objection, viz. that the above example of milk is not to the point, since milk is not transformed into sour milk by itself, but has to depend on whey