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{{Short description|Theory of causation in Hindu-philosophy}}
{{Hindu philosophy}}
{{Saivism|expanded=Philosophy}}
The [[Samkhya]] school of philosophy, which follows Prakṛti Parinama-vada (doctrine of the transformation of objective nature), describes the origination and evolution of universe through its theory of '''Satkāryavāda''' ({{langx|sa|सत्कार्यवाद}}) which is the theory of causation. According to this theory, the manifested effect is pre-existent in the cause; and the original material cause of everything that is perceived is Prakriti. When Prakriti is not in proximity with immutable Purusha, the conscious ability (chiti-shakti), the three modes (gunas-sattva, rajas and tamas) of prakriti are in equipoise and prakriti is an unmanifest potential. When the conscious ability and the objective ability interact the three modes of the objective nature become disturbed and enter a state of flux giving rise to diverse manifest appearance.

== Overview ==

''Satkāryavāda'' is the [[Samkhya]] theory of the pre-existent effect, which states that the effect ''Karya'' already exists in its material cause, which is ''Sat'', and therefore nothing new is brought into existence.

This theory uses two basic concepts.
* Sat(सत्) – existence
* Karya(कार्य)- the manifested effect

This theory asserts that something that exists (''Sat''), cannot originate from non-existence (''Asat'').

This theory, also associated with the [[Yoga]] school of Patanjali, is the systematic unfolding of [[Aruni|Uddalaka Aruni]]’s '[[Substance theory|substantialism]]' and '[[Eternalism (philosophy of time)|eternalism]]' ([[Sassatavada]]). Ishvarakrishna in his ''[[Samkhyakarika]]'' Sl.9 gives five reasons why the effect has to pre-exist in its material cause –

असदकरणादुपादानग्रहणात् सर्वसम्भवाभावात् ।

शक्तस्य शक्यकरणात् कारणभावाच्च सत्कार्यम् ॥ ९ ॥<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ishvarakrishna's sAnkhyakArikA|url=http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_major_works/IshvarakRiShNasAnkyakArikA.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120223144612/http://www.sanskritdocuments.org/all_pdf/IshvarakRiShNasAnkyakArikA.pdf|archive-date=2012-02-23|access-date=2020-11-23|website=sanskritdocuments.org}}</ref>

# what is not cannot be produced,
# the effect requires a material cause,
# not everything arises from everything,
# the cause produces only what corresponds to its potential
# the effect has the nature of the cause.<ref>{{cite book|title=On Being and What There Is|author=Wihelm Halbfass|publisher=SUNY Press|pages=28, 56|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x7cLHPj1dj8C&q=Satkaryavada&pg=PA56|isbn=978-0-7914-1178-0|date=1992-07-28}}</ref>

== Vedic roots ==

During [[Vedic]] times, in seeking to determine the [[Ṛta|rta]] or order underlying all phenomena, a postulation was made that change can be understood in terms of a potency inherent in these phenomena, that is, in the cause to produce the effect, this potency was termed ''svadha'' (own power). But later on, the reality of change itself came into question. However, the [[Upanishads]] and [[Samkhya]], though differing on whether phenomenal change was an illusion or real, accepted ''satkaryavada''. ''Svadha'' and ''satkaryavada'' go beyond efficient causation to partake of nature of formal and material cause. [[Pratītyasamutpāda]] of the [[Buddhist]]s implies a non-linear kind of causality; the word ''paccaya'' of ''paccaya-namarupa'' literally means support, and this presents causation not in terms of unilateral power but in terms of relationship. The [[Buddhist]]s consider all modes of relation to have casual significance.<ref>{{cite book|title=Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems|author=Joanna Macy|publisher=SUNY Press|page=15,32,52|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JXMqPJ-_eY0C&q=Satkaryavada&pg=PA32|isbn=978-0-7914-0636-6|date=January 1991}}</ref>

== Vedanta explanation ==

From [[Chandogya Upanishad]] III.19 and [[Taittiriya Upanishad]] II.7, it appears that being emerged from the pregnant and undifferentiated chaos known as ''asat'' ('non-being') but the [[Brahmanas]] describe creation as the transformation of sat referred to as the impersonal abstract reality (Taittiriya Upanishad II.i ) or as the personal creator ([[Prasna Upanishad]] I.4); ''satkaryavada'' envisages creation as ''parinama::[[vikara]]'' ('modification') of Brahman ([[Brahma Sutras]] II.i.7) which orthodox view is not accepted by the followers of [[Advaita Vedanta]] who place their belief in [[Vivartavada]], the theory of superimposition.<ref>{{cite book|title=Early Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism|author=Richard King|publisher=SUNY Press|pages=58, 78|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p1bASTAOhjoC&q=Satkaryavada&pg=PA58|isbn=978-0-7914-2513-8|date=January 1995}}</ref>

[[Gaudapada]], advocating ''ajativada'', states that [[Mithyatva|mithya]] ('false', 'unreal') effect has a ''mithya'' origination; it is not a real origination. Therefore, [[Totakacharya]], a disciple of [[Adi Shankara|Shankara]], in ''Srutisarasamuddharanam'' Sloka 151 states – even if one thinks that the world, beginning with the mind, does somehow originate according to either the prior existence or the non-existence (of the effect), even then it is not real; for the [[Śruti|sruti]] has declared that it is unreal.<ref>{{cite book|title=Extracting the Essence of the Sruti|author=Totakacarya|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|page=100|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j-eq605vuwUC&q=Satkaryavada&pg=PA100|isbn=9788120814103|year=1996}}</ref>

According to [[Vedanta]], [[Brahman]], the ever-existing [[Nonduality (spirituality)|non-dual]] entity ''sat'' but who is the eternal subject and not an object to be known, is the sole source of joy (''rasah''), a non-entity cannot be a source of happiness. Brahman is the cause of creation. As [[Saguna Brahman]] or [[Ishvara]], with his power of the beginningless [[Maya (illusion)|maya]], he brings forth this creation which is also beginningless, controls and rules it as the Lord within. Maya is [[Prakrti]] (''avayakrta'') composed of three [[Gunas]]. [[Adi Sankara|Sankara]] extends ''satkaryavada'' to state that creation is but manifestation of names and forms only; by transforming into Becoming the indeterminate becomes determinate in association with ''maya'', otherwise the world is unreal – the acosmic approach shows creation to be a superimposition on Brahman whereas according to the subjective approach the phenomenal world of diversity is unreal, a mere dream.<ref>{{cite book|title=Roots of Vedanta|author= Śaṅkarācārya |editor=S. Rangaswami|publisher=Penguin Books|pages=165, 213|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=2snhxaaWDAYC&q=Satkaryavada&pg=PA458 |isbn= 978-0-14-306445-9 |year= 2012 }}</ref>

Sankara defends ''satkaryavada'' against ''asatkaryavada'' but in the light of ''[[vivartavada]]'' as distinguished from ''[[Parinama-vada (Hindu thought)|parinamavada]]'', he posits the infinite and eternal as the goal of human aspirations, distinguishing ''paramartha'' and ''vyavahara'' and agreeing that the former is timeless and the latter, fundamentally impermanent and insubstantial, differing though in their analysis of empirical things and causality.<ref>{{cite book|title=Life and Thought of Sankaracarya|author=Govinda Chandra Pande|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|page=259|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nAiyujUqTwYC&q=Satkaryavada&pg=PA259|isbn=9788120811041|year=1994}}</ref> He states that the sruti speaks of ''[[Prarabdha karma|prarabdha]]'' from an empirical point of view; ''prarabdha'' is accepted for origination (or birth) to account for differences of beings etc., which difference cannot be otherwise produced.<ref>{{cite book|title=Sri Sankara's Vivekacudamani|author=Chandrasekhara Bharati|publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan|page=437|quote=St.462-463|oclc=633667305}}</ref> In the same context but opposing Sankara’s view-point, [[Ramanuja]], the proponent of [[Vishishtadvaita]], in his ''[[Vedarthasamgraha]]'' defines creation thus – Brahman whose body is formed by animate and inanimate beings, who in his gross form is divided by distinctions of names and forms, is presented in the effect; this disunited and gross state of Brahman is called creation.<ref>{{cite book|title=Sankara and Indian Philosophy|author=N. V. Isaeva|publisher=SUNY Press|page=222|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hshaWu0m1D4C&q=Satkaryavada&pg=PA222|isbn=978-0-7914-1281-7|date=January 1993}}</ref>

== Samkhya delineation ==

Satkaryavada is the [[Samkhya]] theory of the pre-existent effect, that the effect ({{lang|sa-Latn|karya}}) already exists in its material cause and therefore, nothing new is brought into existence or produced in the process of creation. This theory, also associated with the [[Yoga]] school, is the systematic unfolding of Udalaka Aruni’s ([[Chandogya Upanishad]] VI.i.4-5) 'substantialism' and 'eternalism'. Ishvarakrishna in his [[Samkhyakarika]] (Sloka 9):

:असदकर्णाद् उपादान ग्रहणात् सर्वसम्भवाभावात् |
:शक्तस्य शक्यकर्णात् कारणभावाच्च सत्कार्यम् ||

gives five reasons why the effect has to pre-exist in its material cause – a) {{lang|sa-Latn|asadkarnat}} - what is not cannot be produced, b) {{lang|sa-Latn|upadana grahanat}} - the effect requires a material cause, c) {{lang|sa-Latn|sarvasambhavabhavat}} - not everything arises from everything, d) {{lang|sa-Latn|saktasya-sakya-karnat}} - the cause produces only what corresponds to its potential and e) {{lang|sa-Latn|karanabhavat}} - the effect has the nature of the cause.<ref>{{cite book|title=On Being and What There Is|author=Wihelm Halbfass|publisher=SUNY Press|pages=28, 56|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x7cLHPj1dj8C&q=Satkaryavada&pg=PA56|isbn=978-0-7914-1178-0|date=1992-07-28}}</ref>

The followers of the Samkhya school hold that {{lang|sa-Latn|karya}} ('effect') is {{lang|sa-Latn|sat}} ('existent') even before {{lang|sa-Latn|karakavyapara}} ('causal operation') renders {{lang|sa-Latn|avirbhuta}} ('manifest') from {{lang|sa-Latn|tirohita}} ('unmanifest condition'). The Samkhyas uphold Parinama-vada, that the cause is continuously transforming itself into effect.<ref>{{cite book|title=History of Indian Philosophy Vol. 1|author=Surendranath Dasgupta|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|pages=258|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PoaMFmS1_lEC&q=Satkaryavada&pg=PA257|isbn=9788120804128|year=1975}}</ref> They advocate two eternal realities, ''[[Prakrti]]'' and ''[[Purusha]]''; the five-fold reasoning for the inference of ''Purusha'' are ([[Samkhyakarika]] Sl.10)–

:हेतुमद् अनित्यमव्यापि सक्रियमनेकमाश्रितं लिङ्गम् |
:सावयवं परतन्त्रं व्यक्तं विपरीतमव्यक्तम् ||

''Prakrti'' and its evolutes all serve the purpose of the self which is Consciousness, b) the self whose purpose is served by ''Prakrti'' must be different from everything composed of the three gunas, c) experiences suggest a transcendental synthetic unity of pure consciousness to co-ordinate all experiences for knowledge pre-supposes the existence of the self, d) the physical universe needs a sentient [[purusha]] to experience it and e) there is the desire to escape from [[Prakṛti|prakrti]] (''[[Samkhyakarika]]'' Sl.10).<ref>{{cite book|title=The Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy|author=Jay L.Garfield|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F06FKmKKIXwC&q=Satkaryavada&pg=PA131|isbn=978-0-19-532899-8|date=2011-06-09|publisher=Oup USA }}</ref>

== Opposition ==

Asatkaryavada also called the arambhavada or new beginning. Against the ''asatkaryavada'' view of causality accepted by the [[Nyaya]] and the [[Vaisheshika]]s,<ref>{{Cite web|date=Dec 28, 2008|title=nyAya vaisheShika Philosophy|url=http://www.kamakotimandali.com/blog/index.php?p=162&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1|access-date=2020-11-23|website=www.kamakotimandali.com}}</ref> the Samkhyas aver that if the effect were something totally new, without prior existence in any form, then one would have to admit the production of existence from non-existence, which is not possible. But Sankara questions the Samkhya contention, he asks – if the effect actually pre-exists how can there be genuine change?<ref>{{cite book|title=Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion|publisher=Routledge|page=103|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UMaenE1H-JEC&q=Satkaryavada&pg=PA103|isbn=978-1-136-69685-5|date=2013-01-17}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{Indian philosophy|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Hindu philosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Buddhist philosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Samkhya]]
[[Category:Sanskrit words and phrases]]
[[Category:Vedanta]]
[[Category:Causality]]

Satkaryavada - Revision history

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