तदधीनत्वादर्थवत् ॥ ३ ॥
tadadhīnatvādarthavat || 3 ||
tadadhīnatvāt—On account of its dependence; arthavat—is fitting.
3. On account of its dependence (on the Lord), it fits in (with our theory).
It may be said that if a subtle causal condition of the gross world is thus admitted, it is as good as accepting the Pradhana. This Sutra makes the difference clear. While the Pradhana of the Sankhyas is an independent entity, the subtle causal condition admitted here is dependent on the Supreme Lord. Such a causal condition has necessarily to be admitted, for without that the Lord cannot create. It is the potential power, the causal potentiality inherent in Brahman. It is Nescience. That explains why, when one’s ignorance is destroyed by Knowledge, there is no possibility of that liberated soul getting into bondage again. About this ignorance you can neither say that it is nor that it is not; it is an illusion and so it is reasonably called undeveloped (Avyakta). This ignorance or creative power cannot create of itself without the instrumentality of the Lord. The illusion of a snake in a rope is not possible merely through ignorance without the rope. So also the world cannot be created merely by ignorance without the substratum, the Lord. Hence it is dependent on the Lord. Yet the Lord is not in the least affected by this ignorance, even as the poison does not affect the snake which has it. “Know then Prakriti is Maya and the great Lord the ruler of Maya” (Svet 4. 10). So the Avyakta is a helper, as it were, to Iswara in His creation, and hence such an Avyakta dependent on the Lord is significant and has to be admitted, says the Sutra.