The Philosophy of the Upanishads c10.s5.t2.4

c10.s5.t2.4

A further consequence of theism is atheism. The division of the âtman into supreme and individual souls must lead to the destruction of the one branch, the supreme soul, since it had derived its vital force solely from the âtman existing in me, which indeed alone exists. After its separation from the latter it could only with difficulty be maintained at all. No more was necessary than to transfer the creative faculties (the *guṇas*, viz.—*sattvam*, rajas and tamas) to matter itself, and God became superfluous. The S'vet. Up. protests in vain against the irruption of the realistic tendency, in vain asserts that it is the divine power that lies hidden in its own guṇas,¹ that the threads of the web of the pradhânas proceed only from God,² that indeed the entire prakṛiti is only an illusion wrought by God.³ When the existence of God was no longer certified by my âtman, the attestation of him in general ceased to be sufficiently strong to prevent his being abandoned by the unscrupulous realism of the Sânkhya; and in this way from the ancient trinity (god, universe, and soul), which was in reality a unity,⁴ the dualism of prakṛiti and purusha originated. Nothing further could then be determined as to their origin, or how they came to be so suited to one another as to be able to combine for a common end, as the strong man blind and the lame man with sight.⁵