he term mahat.

While the Sa@nkhyas employ the term 'the Great one,' to denote the
first-born entity, which is mere existence[232] (? viz. the intellect),
the term has a different meaning in Vedic use. This we see from its
being connected with the Self, &c. in such passages as the following,
'The great Self is beyond the Intellect' (Ka. Up. I, 3, 10); 'The great
omnipresent Self' (Ka. Up. I, 2, 23); 'I know that great person' (/S/ve.
Up. III, 8). We thence conclude that the word avyakta also, where it
occurs in the Veda, cannot denote the pradhana.--The pradhana is
therefore a mere thing of inference, and not vouched for by Scripture.

8. (It cannot be maintained that aja means the pradhana) because no
special characteristic is stated; as in the case of the cup.

Here the advocate of the pradhana comes again forward and maintains that
the absence of scriptural authority for the pradhana is not yet proved.
For, he says, we have the following mantra (/S/ve. Up. IV, 5), 'There is
one aja[233], red, white, and black, producing manifold offspring of the
same nature. There is one aja who loves her and lies by her; there is
another who leaves her after having enjoyed her.'--In this mantra the
words 'red,' 'white,' and 'black' denote the three constituent elements
of the pradhana. Passion is called red on account of its colouring, i.e.
influencing property; Goodness is called white, because it is of the
nature of Light; Darkness is called black on account of its covering and
obscuring property. The state of equipoise of the three constituent
elements, i.e. the pradhana, is denoted by the attributes of its parts,
and is therefore called red-white-black. It is further called aja, i.e.
unborn, because it is acknowledged to be the fundamental matter out of
which everything springs, not a mere effect.--But has not the word aja
the settled meaning of she-goat?--True; but the ordinary meaning of the
word cannot be accepted in this place, because true knowledge forms the
general subject-matter.--That pradhana produces many creatures
participating in its three constituent elements. One unborn being loves
her and lies by her, i.e. some souls, deluded by ignorance, approach
her, and falsely imagining that they experience pleasure or pain, or are
in a state of dulness, pass through the course of transmigratory
existence. Other souls, again, which have attained to discriminative
knowledge, lose their attachment to prak/ri/ti, and leave her