उत्तरोत्पादे च पूर्वनिरोधात् ॥ २० ॥
uttarotpāde ca pūrvanirodhāt || 20 ||
uttarotpāde—At the time of the production of the subsequent thing; ca—and; purva-nirodhāt—because the antecedent one has ceased to exist.
20. And because at the time of the production of the subsequent thing (even in the series of successive causality) the antecedent thing has already ceased to exist, (it cannot be the cause of the subsequent thing).
The Sutra now refutes that even the successive causality spoken of the series Nescience, Samskaras, etc. is untenable. Since everything is momentary, the antecedent thing would already have ceased to exist at the next moment, when the subsequent thing is created; so it cannot be the cause of the other. The clay that exists at the time the pot is created, is alone the cause of the pot, and not that which existed before and has ceased to exist then. If it be still maintained to be the cause, then we have to accept that existence comes out of non-existence, which is impossible. Again the acceptance of the doctrine of momentariness would go against the principle that the effect is the cause in a new form. This principle shows that the cause exists in the effect, which means that it is not momentary. Again on account of the momentariness of things ‘origination’ and ‘destruction’ will be synonymous, for if we say there is difference between the two, then we shall be forced to say that the thing lasts at least for more than one moment, and consequently we shall have to abandon the doctrine of momentariness.