Mandukya Karika, verse 4.15-16

Sanskrit text, IAST transliteration and English translation

हेतोरादिः फलं येषामादिर्हेतुः फलस्य च ।
तथा जन्म भवेत्तेषां पुत्राज्जन्म पितुर्यथा ॥ १५

hetorādiḥ phalaṃ yeṣāmādirhetuḥ phalasya ca |
tathā janma bhavetteṣāṃ putrājjanma pituryathā || 15 ||

15. Those who maintain that the effect is the cause of the cause and the cause is the cause of the effect, describe, as a matter of fact, the evolution after the manner of the birth of the father from the son.

Shankara Bhashya (commentary)

How does the contention of the opponent imply a contradiction? It is thus replied:—The admission that the cause is produced from an effect, which is itself born of a cause, carries with it the contradiction which may be stated to be like the birth of the father from the son.

Verse 4.16

Sanskrit text, IAST transliteration and English translation

संभवे हेतुफलयोरेषितव्यः क्रमस्त्वया ।
युगपत्संभवे यस्मादसंबन्धो विषाणवत् ॥ १६ ॥

saṃbhave hetuphalayoreṣitavyaḥ kramastvayā |
yugapatsaṃbhave yasmādasaṃbandho viṣāṇavat || 16 ||

16. In case causality be still maintained, the order in which cause and effect succeed each other must be stated. If it be said that they appear simultaneously, then they being like the two horns of an animal, cannot be mutually related to each other.

Shankara Bhashya (commentary)

If it be contended that the contradiction, pointed out above, cannot be valid, then the opponent should determine the order in which cause and effect succeed each other. The opponent has to show that the “cause” which is antecedent, produces the “effect” which is subsequent. For the following reason also, the order of “cause” and “effect” must be shown. For, if cause and effect arise simultaneously, then they cannot be related as the cause and the effect, as it is impossible to establish the causal relation between the two horns of a cow produced simultaneously.

Anandagiri Tika (glossary)

This Kārikā refutes causality from the point of time.