Indian Philosophy v2.c27.s8.1

v2.c27.s8.1

Material products are the objects of the inanimate world and form the bodies and organs of all beings. They all originate from the primary matter, prakṛti, and return to it in course of time. Though prakṛti appears to be homogeneous, it is really composed of different principles in a subtle state. It develops into the perceptible universe when worked up by God and the souls. God moulds forms out of prakṛti, which is the material cause and in which he exists himself in various forms.¹ Before we get from the unmanifested prakṛti to the well developed forms of creation, we have twenty-four transitional products of creation which are mahat, ahaṃkāra buddhi, manas, ten senses, five sense-objects and the five great elements. These exist in the primordial prakṛti in subtle forms before their evolution.