Part 48 (2/2)

Thus our conclusion should not be that only smaller effects are preceded by their causes, but that all effects are invariably and unconditionally preceded by causes. This world therefore being an effect must be preceded by a cause, and this cause is is'vara. This cause we cannot see, because is'vara has no visible body, not because he does not exist. It is sometimes said that we see every day that shoots come out of seeds and they are not produced by any agent. To such an objection the Nyaya answer is that even they are created by G.o.d, for they are also effects. That we do not see any one to fas.h.i.+on them is not because there is no maker of them, but because the creator cannot be seen. If the objector could distinctly prove that there was no invisible maker shaping these shoots, then only could he point to it as a case of contradiction. But so long as this is not done it is still only a doubtful case of enquiry and it is therefore legitimate for us to infer that since all effects have a cause, the shoots as well as the manifest world being effects must have a cause.

This cause is is'vara. He has infinite knowledge and is all merciful.

At the beginning of creation He created the Vedas. He is like our father who is always engaged in doing us good [Footnote ref 1].

Tht [email protected] Physics.

The four kinds of atoms are earth, water, fire, and air atoms.

These have ma.s.s, number, weight, fluidity (or hardness), viscosity (or its opposite), velocity, characteristic potential colour, taste, smell, or touch, not produced by the chemical operation of heat. akas'a (s.p.a.ce) is absolutely inert and structure-less being only as the substratum of sound, which is supposed to travel wave-like in the manifesting medium of air. Atomic combination is only possible with the four elements. Atoms cannot exist in an uncombined condition in the creation stage; atmospheric air however consists of atoms in an uncombined state.

Two atoms combine to form a binary molecule ([email protected]_). Two, three, four, or five [email protected] form themselves into grosser molecules of [email protected], [email protected], etc. [Footnote ref 2]. Though this was the generally current view, there was also another view as has been pointed out by Dr B.N. Seal in his _Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus_, that the ”atoms have also an inherent tendency to unite,” and that

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[Footnote 1: See Jayanta's _Nyayamanjari,_ pp. 190-204, and Udayana's _Kusumanjali_ with _Prakas'a_ and _is'varanumana_ of Raghunatha.]

[Footnote 2: _Kadacit tribhirarabhyate iti [email protected], kadacit caturbhirarabhyate kadacit pancabhiriti [email protected]@[email protected] kalpana.

Nyayakandali_, p. 32.]

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they do so in twos, threes, or fours, ”either by the atoms falling into groups of threes, fours, etc., directly, or by the successive addition of one atom to each preceding aggregate [Footnote ref l].” Of course the atoms are regarded as possessed of an incessant vibratory motion. It must however be noted in this connection that behind this physical explanation of the union of atoms there is the [email protected]@[email protected], the will of is'vara, which gives the direction of all such unions in harmony with the principle of a ”moral government of the universe,”

so that only such things are produced as can be arranged for the due disposal of the effects of karma. ”An elementary substance thus produced by primary atomic combination may however suffer qualitative changes under the influence of heat (_pakajotpatti_)”

The impact of heat corpuscles decomposes a [email protected] into the atoms and transforms the characters of the atoms determining them all in the same way. The heat particles continuing to impinge reunite the atoms so transformed to form binary or other molecules in different orders or arrangements, which account for the specific characters or qualities finally produced. The [email protected] holds that there is first a disintegration into simple atoms, then change of atomic qualities, and then the final re-combination, under the influence of heat. This doctrine is called the doctrine of _pilupaka_ (heating of atoms). Nyaya on the other hand thinks that no disintegration into atoms is necessary for change of qualities, but it is the molecules which a.s.sume new characters under the influence of heat. Heat thus according to Nyaya directly affects the characters of the molecules and changes their qualities without effecting a change in the atoms. Nyaya holds that the heat-corpuscles penetrate into the porous body of the object and thereby produce the change of colour. The object as a whole is not disintegrated into atoms and then reconst.i.tuted again, for such a procedure is never experienced by observation. This is called the doctrine of [email protected]_ (heating of molecules). This is one of the few points of difference between the later Nyaya and [email protected] systems [Footnote ref 2].

Chemical compounds of atoms may take place between the

[Footnote 1: Utpala's commentary on [email protected]_ I. 7.]

[Footnote 2: See Dr B.N. Seal in P.C. Ray's _Hindu Chemistry_, pp. 190-191, _Nyayamanjari_, p 438, and Udyotakara's _Varttika_. There is very little indication in the Nyaya and [email protected] sutras_ that they had any of those differences indicated here. Though there are slight indications of these matters in the [email protected] sutras_ (VII. 1), the _Nyaya sutras_ are almost silent upon the matter. A systematic development of the theory of creation and atomic combinations appear to have taken place after Vatsyayana.]

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atoms of the same bhuta or of many bhutas. According to the Nyaya view there are no differences in the atoms of the same bhuta, and all differences of quality and characteristics of the compound of the same bhuta are due only to diverse collocations of those atoms. Thus Udyotakara says (III. i. 4) that there is no difference between the atom of a barley seed and paddy seed, since these are all but atoms of earth. Under the continued impact of heat particles the atoms take new characters. It is heat and heat alone that can cause the transformations of colours, tastes etc. in the original bhuta atoms. The change of these physical characters depends on the colours etc. of the const.i.tuent substances in contact, on the intensity or degree of heat and also on the species of tejas corpuscles that impinge on the atoms. Heat breaks bodies in contact into atoms, transforms their qualities, and forms separate bodies with them.

Pras'astapada (the commentator of [email protected]) holds that in the higher compounds of the same bhuta the transformation takes place (under internal heat) in the const.i.tuent atoms of the compound molecules, atoms specially determined as the compound and not in the original atoms of the bhuta entering into the composition of the compound. Thus when milk is turned into curd, the transformation as curd takes place in the atoms determined as milk in the milk molecule, and it is not necessary that the milk molecule should be disintegrated into the atoms of the original bhuta of which the milk is a modification. The change as curd thus takes place in the milk atom, and the milk molecule has not to be disintegrated into [email protected] or ap atoms. So again in the fertilized ovum, the germ and the ovum substances, which in the [email protected] view are both isomeric modes of earth (with accompaniments of other bhutas) are broken up into h.o.m.ogeneous earth atoms, and it is these that chemically combine under the animal heat and biomotor force vayu to form the germ (_kalala_). But when the germ plasm develops, deriving its nutrition from the blood of the mother, the animal heat breaks up the molecules of the germ plasm into its const.i.tuent atoms, i.e. atoms specifically determined which by their grouping formed the germ plasm.

These germ-plasm atoms chemically combine with the atoms of the food const.i.tuents and thus produce cells and tissues [Footnote ref 1].

This atomic contact is called [email protected]_.

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[Footnote 1: See Dr B.N. Seal's _Positive Sciences,_ pp. 104-108, and _Nyayakandali_, pp. 33-34, ”_S'arirarambhe paramanava eva [email protected] na [email protected] kriyavibhagadinyayena tayorvinas'e sati [email protected] [email protected], na ca [email protected]@m [email protected]@h [email protected]...[email protected] [email protected] matuh [email protected] tayos [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]@su purvarupadivinas'e [email protected]@nantarotpattau [email protected]@na [email protected] [email protected]'o...tatra maturahararaso matraya [email protected], [email protected]@[email protected]'attatra [email protected] [email protected]@su kriyavibhagadinyayena kalalas'arire [email protected]@te [email protected] [email protected]@[email protected]

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