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The Tattvas
Some of the elementary truths as given by a set of teachers will include two or more of the elementary truths as given by others, according to the standpoint, the teacher sets up for himself. In tracing effects to their cause, or in discussing cause and effect, according to the ingenuity and logic of each teacher, the numbers might be arranged or shuffled.
The relation of these principles as cause and effect and their number may vary according to the power of speech which any teacher may command, and every such position should be accepted as correct, because there is an explanation for it.
As man is under the influence of beginningless ignorance, he cannot have Self-realisation without the help of a preceptor. He who knows Brahman only can impart that knowledge of the Self. Such a preceptor is Parameshvara who is distinct from the Jiva. Hence some hold that the principles are twenty-six.
Some hold that the principles are twenty-five. Because there is no difference at all between the Purusha (Soul) and Isvara (God). It is not right to take them as two different principles. Knowledge is but an attribute or property of Prakriti.
Prakriti is equilibrium of the Gunas which belong only to Prakriti and not to Atman. The Gunas are Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, the causes respectively of the subsistence, origin and destruction of the world.
Knowledge is the result of Sattva, activity of Rajas and ignorance of Tamas. Time is Isvara who causes the disturbance in the Gunas. Svabhava or tendency is Sutra or Mahat Tattva.
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