The Supreme Cause

Abstract

We now come to the issue most prominent in Vedantic polemics—what is the cause of the cosmic process? How can a perfect and transcendent Being be such a cause? And what is the nature of causal relations within this process? All Vedantins, following in general the lines laid down in the Brahma-Sutras, were at one in opposing a variety of causal theories which did not attribute the world’s origin solely to the creative power of Brahman. In particular Samkhya’s causal theory was felt to be a threat—perhaps because of its plausibility, perhaps because it was able to point to a number of supporting texts in the Vedas and Upanishads. What Vedantins saw revealed in scripture, however, was that only Brahman should be regarded as the all-powerful, self-existent Cause of the whole universe. But they also recognised problems which such a causal claim poses—problems concerning the transcendent perfection of Brahman. It is the difference in the Vedantins’ response to these problems that accounts for the serious divergence in their descriptions both of Brahman as Creator and of the internal working of causal relations.