Indian Logic and Atomism: An Exposition of the Nyaya and Vaiceshika Systems c19.s2.3

c19.s2.3

The second proof rests on the fact that right knowledge requires an external source and thus the Veda presupposes a creator. This conception is defended against objections to the doctrine of creation and destruction based on the regular alternation of day and night; the impossibility of the birth of a Brahman at the outset of creation without one of that caste to be his father; the impossibility of the inauguration of language or traditional arts; and the impossibility of cessation in the process of the ripening of the fruits of action. Merit, he replies, may produce miraculous birth, God may teach language and the arts assuming both the preceptor’s and the pupil’s forms,¹ in deep sleep the fruition of acts is suspended, and still more so at the destruction of the world, a view which removes the difficulty of the process of time. Positively too the decay of customs, morals, and learning show how the Veda gradually dies out, to be revived at a new creation.