Sarvadarshanasangraha 2.6

2.6

Do not speak thus. For a doubt of the kind, "let the effect be produced even without a cause," is eliminated because it culminates in self-contradiction. Indeed, that alone should be doubted which, when doubted, would not bring about self-contradiction and the like. Thus it has been said: "Doubt reaches its limit at self-contradiction." Therefore, invariable concomitance is determined through the ascertainment of origination therefrom. And that ascertainment of origination therefrom is based upon the fivefold sequence of perception and non-perception of the effect and the cause: (1) non-perception of the effect prior to its origination; (2-3) its perception when the cause is perceived; (4-5) subsequently, non-perception of what was perceived, owing to the non-perception of the cause—by this fivefold causal condition, the relation of cause and effect between smoke and fire is determined. Likewise, invariable concomitance is also determined by the ascertainment of identity. For if the *śiṃśapā* tree were to transgress treeness, it would abandon its very nature—such is the operation of the counter-argument against the negative instance. But when a counter-argument does not operate, even though frequent co-presence is observed, who could dispel the suspicion of variability? And the ascertainment of identity between the *śiṃśapā* and the tree is established by force of the co-reference: "this tree is a *śiṃśapā*." For this [co-reference] is not possible in the case of absolute non-difference, since being synonyms they could not be used simultaneously; nor in the case of absolute difference, since [it is] not observed between a cow and a horse. Therefore, it is established that the two whose nature is the effect make known through inference the two whose nature is the cause.