33 प्रकृत्यधिकरणम्

1.4.7 प्रकृत्यधिकरणम् The contention that the efficient cause is different from the material cause because one and the same obejct can not be both; and, in ordinary experience we find the उपनिषद्-s proclaiming the changeless nature of Brahman;1 and so the Supreme Brahman is not the material cause is wrong. It is because the proposition that ‘by the knowledge of one thing everything is known'2 would hold good only if Brahman is admitted as the material cause of the world. Further there is the text of the उपनिषद् ‘What was the wood, what was the tree, from which they have built this earth and heaven’ तैत्तिरीय ब्राह्मण II, 8 - 9) states that Brahman is both the material and the efficient cause of the world. Notes : 1. That alone could be the material cause which undergoes change. 2. छान्द् Up., 6 - 1 - 3. 3. By the knowledge of the efficient cause - potter (say) there will not arise the cognition of pot. But by the knowledge of the material cause, namely, the lump of clay, there would arise the cognition of pot, etc., made up of clay.