o anything else but their material
causes.

26. (Brahman is the material cause) on account of (the Self) making
itself; (which is possible) owing to modification.

Brahman is the material cause for that reason also that Scripture--in
the passage, 'That made itself its Self' (Taitt. Up. II, 7)--represents
the Self as the object of action as well as the agent.--But how can the
Self which as agent was in full existence previously to the action be
made out to be at the same time that which is effected by the
action?--Owing to modification, we reply. The Self, although in full
existence previously to the action, modifies itself into something
special, viz. the Self of the effect. Thus we see that causal
substances, such as clay and the like, are, by undergoing the process of
modification, changed into their products.--The word 'itself' in the
passage quoted intimates the absence of any other operative cause but
the Self.

The word 'pari/n/amat' (in the Sutra) may also be taken as constituting
a separate Sutra by itself, the sense of which would be: Brahman is the
material cause of the world for that reason also, that the sacred text
speaks of Brahman and its modification into the Self of its effect as
co-ordinated, viz. in the passage, 'It became sat and tyat, defined and
undefined' (Taitt. Up. II, 6).

27. And because Brahman is called the source.

Brahman is the material cause for that reason also that it is spoken of
in the sacred texts as the source (yoni); compare, for instance, 'The
maker, the Lord, the person who has his source in Brahman' (Mu. Up. III,
1, 3); and 'That which the wise regard as the source of all beings' (Mu.
Up. I, 1, 6). For that the word 'source' denotes the material cause is
well known from the use of ordinary language; the earth, for instance,
is called the yoni of trees and herbs. In some places indeed the word
yoni means not source, but merely place; so, for instance, in the
mantra, 'A yoni, O Indra, was made for you to sit down upon' (/Ri/k.
Sa/m/h. I, 104, 1). But that in the passage quoted it means 'source'
follows from a complementary passage, 'As the spider sends forth and
draws in its threads,' &c.--It is thus proved that Brahman is the
material cause of the world.--Of the objection, finally, that in
ordinary life the activity of operative causal agents only, such as
potters and the like, is preceded by reflection, we dispose by the
remark that, as the matter in hand is not one which