Verse 2.370

Sanskrit text and transliteration:

ध्रुवः सन्कुरुते कार्यमयस्कान्तो मणिर्यथा ।
कारणत्वं भवेदेवं कुर्वतोऽतिशयः कुतः ॥ ३७० ॥

dhruvaḥ sankurute kāryamayaskānto maṇiryathā |
kāraṇatvaṃ bhavedevaṃ kurvato'tiśayaḥ kutaḥ || 370 ||

English translation of verse 2.370:

Just as a magnet, remaining immutable, can produce an effect, so also Brahman (though immutable) may be the cause. If the cause be ever active, where is room for anything new?

Notes:

It may be argued that Brahman which is immutable cannot be the cause of the world, for a cause must undergo modification, and what is immutable cannot be a cause. Clay, for instance, gives rise to a pot only through the modification of its state. Again, a seed is the cause of the sprout only through the transformation which it undergoes. If Brahman is immutable (kūṭastha), it cannot be the cause of the world.

This argument is untenable. Consider the case of a piece of magnet which is the cause of the movement of the iron filings, though it remains all the time immutable. Similarly Brahman, though immutable, may nevertheless be the cause of the world.

A thing which is immutable, it may be urged by the critic, cannot be the cause. A cause is that which is fit enough to do an action; and an object which is professedly immutable cannot be a cause. So, what is active and thereby brings about an effect cannot be immutable, and what is immutable cannot be a cause.

This argument will not do. Is it the case that the cause is ever active and brings about the effect all the time? If the cause is ever active (sadākurvaccetkāraṇam), then it is of the same nature for ever; and what remains the same for ever is, indeed, immutable. Thus a thing which is immutable must be said to be a cause. Further, if the cause of the world is ever active, there must be creation all the time with the result that there cannot be any such thing as dissolution. If. on the contrary, it be said that a cause is active only on particular occasions (kadācitkurvaccetkāraṇam), even then what is inactive or immutable is the cause, for it is admitted that it must have been inactive or immutable before it became active. The state of inactivity must have preceded the state of activity. The former is the cause of the latter, it follows, therefore, that what is immutable or inactive is the cause. If so. Brahman which is immutable can be the cause of the world.