Volume-III, Issue-I, August 2026
Novel Insights A Peer-Reviewed Quarterly Multidisciplinary Research Journal |
Volume-III, Issue-I , August 2026 |
Earth, Self, and the Universe: An Ecocritical Exploration of Whitman and Nazrul's Poetry Shirin Akter, Senior Lecturer, Department of Bangla Language and Literature, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh Eamail: shirin.akter@ulab.edu.bd |
Received: 06.08.2026 | Accepted: 27.08.2026 | Published Online: 31.08.2026 |
Page No: 26-36 | DOI: 10.69655/novelinsights.vol.3.issue.01W.114 | |
Abstract | ||
In this paper, the Buddhist criticism of the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika conception of the world's permanent, omniscient and efficient cause, Īśvara, will be discussed. In the Nyāya–Vaiśeṣika tradition, it is accepted that Īśvara is an intelligent cause which arranges the eternal atoms and other causal conditions in an orderly universe. The Buddhist philosophers, especially Dharmakīrti, contest this view by discussing the logical connection between permanence, omniscience, causation and the production of intermittent effects. The main Buddhist teaching is that a fixed and unchanging creator is not sufficient to account for the effects which appear and disappear in different times. If the creator has an unchangeable causal power, then the effects should be continuous; otherwise, if the causal power is variable depending on the circumstance, then the creator can no longer be considered absolutely permanent. The Buddhist critique also calls into doubt the epistemological validity of a permanently omniscient being, and denies the Genuine Establishment of an additional causal principle of the nature of the Īśvara. The paper brings these arguments together, demonstrating that the Buddhist criticism is not only anti-theistic, but a thorough investigation of the coherence of the Nyāya–Vaiśeṣika causal theory. The philosophical implications of the debate for the understanding of permanence and change, causality, omniscience, and intelligent agency and the production of the world are also discussed. Keywords: Buddhism, Nyāya–Vaiśeṣika, Īśvara, Dharmakīrti, Buddhist critique of theism, causality, Momentariness, Dependent origination, Omniscience, Karma | ||