can be known through
inferential reasoning, ordinary experience cannot be used to settle it.
For the knowledge of that matter we rather depend on Scripture
altogether, and hence Scripture only has to be appealed to. And that
Scripture teaches that the Lord who reflects before creation is at the
same time the material cause, we have already explained. The subject
will, moreover, be discussed more fully later on.

28. Hereby all (the doctrines concerning the origin of the world which
are opposed to the Vedanta) are explained, are explained.

The doctrine according to which the pradhana is the cause of the world
has, in the Sutras beginning with I, 1, 5, been again and again brought
forward and refuted. The chief reason for the special attention given to
that doctrine is that the Vedanta-texts contain some passages which, to
people deficient in mental penetration, may appear to contain
inferential marks pointing to it. The doctrine, moreover, stands
somewhat near to the Vedanta doctrine since, like the latter, it admits
the non-difference of cause and effect, and it, moreover, has been
accepted by some of the authors of the Dharma-sutras, such as Devala,
and so on. For all these reasons we have taken special trouble to refute
the pradhana doctrine, without paying much attention to the atomic and
other theories. These latter theories, however, must likewise be
refuted, as they also are opposed to the doctrine of Brahman being the
general cause, and as slow-minded people might think that they also are
referred to in some Vedic passages. Hence the Sutrakara formally
extends, in the above Sutra, the refutation already accomplished of the
pradhana doctrine to all similar doctrines which need not be demolished
in detail after their great protagonist, the pradhana doctrine, has been
so completely disposed of. They also are, firstly, not founded on any
scriptural authority; and are, secondly, directly contradicted by
various Vedic passages.--The repetition of the phrase 'are explained' is
meant to intimate that the end of the adhyaya has been reached.

Notes:

[Footnote 228: The Great one is the technical Sa@nkhya-term for buddhi,
avyakta is a common designation of pradhana or prak/ri/ti, and purusha
is the technical name of the soul. Compare, for instance, Sa@nkhya Kar.
2, 3.]

[Footnote 229: Sa/m/kalpavikalparupamanana/s/aktya haira/n/yagarbhi
buddhir manas tasya/h/ vyash/t/imana/h/su samash/t/itaya vyaptim aha
mahan iti.