कारणाभावतः कार्यं नेदं तत्किञ्चनोदितम् । यत्तत्कारणमेवाऽस्ति तदेवेत्थमवस्थितम् ॥ १५ ॥
kāraṇābhāvataḥ kāryaṁ nēdaṁ tatkiñcanōditam | yattatkāraṇamēvā’sti tadēvētthamavasthitam || 15 ||
Translation
Because there is no cause, this effect is not anything that has arisen. What is, is only the cause; that alone stands thus.
Word by word
- kāraṇa
- of a cause
- abhāvataḥ
- because of the absence
- kāryaṁ
- effect
- na
- not
- idaṁ
- this
- tat
- it; that
- kiñcana
- anything
- uditam
- arisen
- yat
- what
- kāraṇam
- the cause
- ēva
- only
- asti
- is
- tad
- (tat) that
- ittham
- thus
- avasthitam
- stands
Meaning
The commentary: since there is no cause that changes into it, this is not an effect produced by change; from the standpoint of change nothing at all has arisen. From the standpoint of vivarta, of an appearance on a ground, even the contrary can be superimposed; yet the ground of that appearance, Brahman itself, is what stands as the world, so the world has no separate being as an effect. Another commentary explains the two terms: change (pariṇāma) is when one thing alters and becomes another, as milk becomes curd; appearance (vivarta) is when a thing remains as it is and through ignorance is taken for another, as a shell for silver or a rope for a snake. Vasiṣṭha's "that alone stands thus" is the whole of the vivarta teaching: the world is the cause seen otherwise, not a product made out of it.