Tag Causality

Every thing has a Cause,

Events, Actions follow each other.

An action or event is the reason for another action, event.

Therefore, Cause may be the result of a Cause and be a Result of another.

Again a Cause may lead to many results,

A Result may be due to many Causes.

If this were to be true, then the First Cause becomes a Logical fallacy.

It is interesting to the Theory of Causation in Indian Philosophy, Hinduism.

There are three Vadas or doctrines viz., Parinama Vada of Sankhya Philosophers, e.g., like milk changing into curd, Vivarta Vada of Sri Sankaracharya, e.g., snake in the rope, and Ajati Vada, the theory of non-evolution of the universe of Sri Gaudapada. The first Vada is the lowest. Vivarta is in the middle. Ajati Vada is the highest.

To understand this we may like this.

The Effect is different from the Cause as in Parinama Vada,

This is fallacious as this theory assigns an Object without a Cause, which defeats the Theory of causation which is being defined.

And an Object comes into being without a cause means we allude to Multitudes of realities.

This is Philosophically incorrect as the presence of more than One Reality would limit the other or at least interact with the other.

It it interacts with the other, it would again lead to other Reality.

If it exists in parallel, it should have an origin either with that of the other Reality that has caused the other Reality.

In both cases it is fallacious.

Therefore the Theory that the Effects are different from Causes is untenable.

The other one is the Effect is contained in the Cause.

This is The Ajati Vada, the theory of non-evolution of the universe of Sri Gaudapada.

Though logically correct, this does not explain our experience of the external world of Things.

Shankaracharya explains this contradiction of both the Theories in his Vivarta Vada.

The world is Real, yet Illusory.

He cites the example of a Rope being mistaken for a Snake in poor light.

Once we flash a light, we know that it was not a Snake but a Rope.

So the fact that we saw a Snake was real for that limited point of Time when we did not have correct Knowledge.

That it is a Rope is Real in the Absolute sense.

Therefore both are Real but differentiated because of our Knowledge/inadequate Knowledge.

This is Sankara's Vivarta Vada.