The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s8.106

v2.c40.s8.106

The position with regard to causality is the same. In the Sāṅkhya system and in the Buddhist the category of causality is regarded as truly existing, and the Sāṅkhya quite seriously applies the doctrine of causality as enabling it to determine the nature of its final principles: the things of empirical life are referred ultimately to one ground in nature, Prakṛti, while again the unfolding of nature is essentially relative to some principle for whose advantage it takes place, which is the Puruṣa. In the Upaniṣads a theory of causality is not to be found, and the early texts have not the term, Kāraṇa; nor is this remarkable: in effect the Brahman is essentially above all cause: when the categories of place, time, substance, and cause disappear, then the Brahman remains over, as it is said in a very late text.⁴ The Chāndogya Upaniṣad⁵ uses the idea of root and shoot to convey the idea of derivation.