Verses on Sāṃkhya 7

Now, of that which is termed the manifest, the unmanifest, and the knower, which is established by which among the three kinds of instruments of knowledge, perception and the rest? In response, it is said:

Cognition of supersensible things, however, is from inference seen through commonality; / and what is beyond perception, unproved even by that, is to be established from authoritative tradition. //

Here, primordial matter and spirit are supersensible; their establishment is from inference seen through commonality. Because, seeing the mark [consisting of] the intellect and the rest, which possesses the three constituents and is an effect, primordial matter, which is its cause and also possesses the three constituents, is established to exist even though unseen. For the existent cannot arise from the non-existent, nor can an effect be unlike its cause. The manifest, however, is established by perception alone; therefore no effort is made for its sake. Because primordial matter, even though insentient, proceeds into the activity of production, therefore there must necessarily exist spirit, like a magnet which is the cause of the power of movement in iron; thus the knower is established. //