Guadapada's Deconstruction of Causality

Who was Guadapada and what was his teaching on causality?

Guadapada was Adi Shankara's Grand Guru. Adi Shankara was an Indian philosopher and enlightened master who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta, a core collection of teaching regarding the non dual nature of reality. Guadapada is considered a primary resource on non duality and his karikas, or commentaries, on the Mandukya Upanishad, which unfolds the three states of experience ( waking,dream and deep sleep) is considered one of the most important treatise on the ultimate ever written.

The Mandukya Upanishad has some very deep material which helps to "soften" the view that our experience of the world is somehow "solid" and separate. In it, Guadapada unfolds the illusion regarding our core belief in the reality of cause and effect

The following commentary is by Greg Goode, the creator of the helpful website, wwwheartofnow.com and author of “Standing as Awareness” (Click here to read about “Standing as Awareness” which details many specific techniques of self inquiry by Greg Goode):

 “Gaudapada deconstructs causality in a very clever way:

 It can be seen that in cauality, the cause is the cause of the effect, and the effect is the cause of the cause. 

 The latter sounds impossible!!!  The effect causing the cause?!!  What?!!  Turning back time??  No - but it can be seen as follows, where the effect causes the cause:

 Situation - the white billiard ball hits the red billiard ball

 Event A - white ball hits red ball

Event B - red ball moves

 Event A becomes a cause only after Event B happens. 

So the Gaudapada Karika Chapter IV says that this refutes causality.  In sections 18 and 19:

 (18) If the cause is produced from the effect and if the effect is, again, produced from the cause, which of the two is born first upon which depends the birth of the other?

 (19) The inability to reply to the question raised above, the ignorance about the matter and the impossibility of establishing the order of succession if the causal relation is admitted clearly lead the wise to uphold, under all conditions, the doctrine of ajati, or non—creation.

 And later, a very insightful lesson about teaching:

 (42) Wise men teach causality only for the sake of those who, afraid of non—creation, assert the reality of external objects because they perceive such objects and also because they cling to various social and religious duties.

 (43) Those who, because of their fear of the truth of absolute non— creation and also because of their perception of external objects, deny ajati (non—creation) are not affected by the evil consequent on the belief in creation. This evil, if there is any, is insignificant.

 This is deep material. Have no fear. These teachings what Francis Lucille might call “graduate level studies” in non-duality. (Click here for teachiing DVD satsangs with Francis Lucille)

 We recommend starting with our teachiing DVD set with Rupert Spira called “The Transparency of Things”, which clearly walks the viewer through exercises designed to deconstruct our ignorance regarding our experience of the world, body and mind.( Click here to view free clips with Rupert Spira)

You may order the full Transparency of Things DVD series by clicking here.

The important thing is to realize that we never experience an object in itself, we only experience a perception of the object. These objects are mentations, or “arisings” as Greg Goode refers to them occuring within (and as) consciousness. Once realized, we expand our inquiry and find the following regarding arisings: that they are only experienced one at a time, that they never touch one another, that they never refer to one another and that they never appear in one another. As such, how can they have a cause?