The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c8.s5.t3.3

c8.s5.t3.3

It is a fundamental principle of the original Brahman doctrine that everything existing, and therefore the soul also, is absolutely dependent on God; from this follows that He is on the one hand the necessary cause of the fate and sufferings of the soul, and on the other hand of its actions, whatever they are. The philosophical elaboration of the doctrine of the Vedānta has violated this principle in both directions by referring both the action and sufferings of man to a cause inherent in himself. It is true both are none the less dependent on God; but only in the same sense that the growth of plants depends on rain, which causes the seed to develop, but exercises no influence on its nature. We have already seen that the seed of the sufferings and destinies of this life is to be found in the works of the previous existence, which demand to be atoned for (above p. 279); and so too are the works of each existence necessarily determined by the works of the former existence—how this is possible is, as in the case of all moral questions, not plainly developed. According to p. 1131 (translated above p. 113) works are the product of the *nimittas* or motives and of the *çakti*, power, i. e., character; and this consists generally speaking in the natural disposition (destructible only by perfect knowledge) to activity and enjoyment; however as it produces works that differ individually, character must be imagined as specially modified in the case of each individual. We must think of an innate character of this sort, conditioned by the works of the previous existence, when the soul, in what follows, is described as "connected with defects like love and hate" (*rāga-dvesha-ādi-dosha-prayuktah* p. 681, 3); and when as the seed from which works grow appears the "effort of the soul directed towards good and evil" (*kritah prayatno jivasya, dharma-adharma-lakshanah*), which seems to be summed up just in that innate disposition of character.