History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c22.21

c22.21

The above verse and its commentary explain both the phrases n'atthi hetu in the Sāmañña-phala-Sutta passage and niyati-saṅgati-bhāva-pariṇatā. For the niyativādin causation was illusory. The European doctrine of causation conceived the universe as determined by an immense number of causes, going back to a first cause, which might or might not be expressed in theological terms. The Ājīvika theory was evidently very different from this. The universe seems to have been thought of as a continuous process, which was recognized by some later Ājīvikas to be on ultimate analysis illusory.³ The only effective cause was Niyati, which was not merely a first cause, but, in its aspects as saṅgati and bhāva, or chance and inner character, was also the efficient cause of all phenomena. Saṅgati and bhāva, the manifestations of Niyati in individuals, were only apparent and illusory modifications of the one principle, and did not in fact introduce new causal factors into the universal process. Thus, the Ājīvika was sometimes called a believer in the doctrine of causelessness (ahetukavādin).⁴ Since all human activities were ineffectual he was also an akriyāvādin, a disbeliever in the efficiency of works.