h positions, according to his liking, it follows
that he is animated by hatred, passion, and so on, is hence like one of
us, and is no real Lord. Nor can we get over this difficulty by assuming
that he makes his dispositions with a view to the merit and demerit of
the living beings; for that assumption would lead us to a logical
see-saw, the Lord as well as the works of living beings having to be
considered in turns both as acting and as acted upon. This difficulty is
not removed by the consideration that the works of living beings and the
resulting dispositions made by the Lord form a chain which has no
beginning; for in past time as well as in the present mutual
interdependence of the two took place, so that the beginningless series
is like an endless chain of blind men leading other blind men. It is,
moreover, a tenet set forth by the Naiyayikas themselves that
'imperfections have the characteristic of being the causes of action'
(Nyaya Sutra I, 1, 18). Experience shows that all agents, whether they
be active for their own purposes or for the purposes of something else,
are impelled to action by some imperfection. And even if it is admitted
that an agent even when acting for some extrinsic purpose is impelled by
an intrinsic motive, your doctrine remains faulty all the same; for the
Lord is no longer a Lord, even if he is actuated by intrinsic motives
only (such as the desire of removing the painful feeling connected with
pity).--Your doctrine is finally inappropriate for that reason also that
you maintain the Lord to be a special kind of soul; for from that it
follows that he must be devoid of all activity.

38. And on account of the impossibility of the connexion (of the Lord
with the souls and the pradhana).

Against the doctrine which we are at present discussing there lies the
further objection that a Lord distinct from the pradhana and the souls
cannot be the ruler of the latter without being connected with them in a
certain way. But of what nature is that connexion to be? It cannot be
conjunction (sa/m/yoga), because the Lord, as well as the pradhana and
the souls, is of infinite extent and devoid of parts. Nor can it be
inherence, since it would be impossible to define who should be the
abode and who the abiding thing. Nor is it possible to assume some other
connexion, the special nature of which would have to be inferred from
the effect, because the relation of cause and effect is just what is not
settled a