The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c7.s2.t2.2

c7.s2.t2.2

Brahman was defined at the outset of this work (1, 1, 2) as "that by which the world originates, etc. (subsists, and perishes)," (cf. the definitions above p. 123), and therefore as the cause of the world. The word "Cause", however, may mean two things, either the material cause (*prakṛiti*, *upâdânam*), or the efficient cause (*nimittam*); so the cause of the vessel is, on one hand, the clay, and on the other the potter, that of the golden ornament is on one hand the gold,