A History of Indian Philosophy v4.c38.s2.36.3

v4.c38.s2.36.3

24–28) concludes after textual discussions that even those words, such as *prakṛti*, etc., which are of the feminine gender, denote Viṣṇu; for, since out of Viṣṇu everything is produced, there cannot be any objection to words of feminine gender being applied to him. With Śaṅkara, however, the seventh topic begins with I. 4. 23–27 (Śaṅkara's numbering), and in this he tries to prove that Brahman is not only the instrumental cause, but also the material cause (*upādāna-kāraṇa*) of the world. To this the obvious Madhva objections are that, if the material cause and the instrumental cause of the universe could be identical, that could also have been the case with regard to a jug; one could assume that the potter and the mud are identical. Stray objections are also taken against the *Bhāmatī*, which supposes that material cause here means "the basis of illusion" (*bhramādhiṣṭhāna*). Śaṅkara, however, has an eighth topic, consisting of only the last *sūtra* of I. 4, which corresponds to the seventh topic of Madhva. Madhva holds that the import of this topic is that such words as *asat* ("non-existent") or *śūnya* also denote Viṣṇu, since it is by His will that non-existence or even the hare's horn is what it is.