उपपद्यते चाप्युपलभ्यते च ॥ ३६ ॥
upapadyate cāpyupalabhyate ca || 36 ||
upapadyate—Is reasonable; ca—and; api—and; upalabhyate—is seen; ca—also.
36. And (that the world is without a beginning) is reasonable and is also seen (from the scriptures).
Reason tells us that creation must be without a beginning. For if the world did not exist in a potential state in the form of Samskaras (impressions), then an absolutely non-existing thing would be produced at creation. In that case even liberated souls might be reborn. Moreover people would be enjoying or suffering without having done anything to deserve it—an instance of an effect without a cause, which is absurd. It cannot be attributed to primeval ignorance, which, being one, requires the diversity of individual past work to produce varied results. The scriptures also posit the existence of the world in former cycles in texts like “The Lord devised the sun and moon as before” (Rig-Veda 10. 190. 3).
So partiality and cruelty cannot be imputed to the Lord.