5. On account of thinking being attributed to the First Cause by the scriptures, the Pradhana is not the First Cause referred to by them; it is not based on the scriptures.
The First Cause is said in the scriptures to have willed before creation:
“This universe, my dear, was but the Real (Sat) in the beginning—One only without a second. It thought, ‘may I be many, may I grow!’ and It projected fire.”
“It (the Atman) willed, ‘Let me project worlds!’ So It projected these worlds.”
Such willing is not possible to the insentient Pradhana. It is possible only if the First Cause is an intelligent principle like Brahman.
The Sat after creating fire, water, and earth says: “Let me now enter into these three as this living self and evolve names and forms.”
The First Cause here refers to the conscious Jiva as its own Self. The insentient Pradhana cannot meaningfully refer to the intelligent principle as itself.
Liberation is declared for one devoted to this Sat. Therefore the Sat cannot be the insentient Pradhana, since meditation on inert matter cannot grant liberation.
The teaching to Svetaketu, “Thou art That,” also confirms that the text concerns the conscious Self.
Nowhere do the scriptures say that this Sat is later to be abandoned as an incomplete teaching stage. Instead, the entire chapter consistently treats this Sat as the true Self.
If it had referred to the Pradhana, there would necessarily be a later rejection of that provisional teaching, but no such rejection occurs.
In deep sleep the individual soul is said to merge into its own Self, the Sat. Such merging is impossible into inert Pradhana, and therefore the Sat must be Brahman.
All Vedantic texts uniformly refer to an intelligent First Cause. Therefore Brahman alone is intended.
The Vedas directly declare the omniscient Lord as the cause of the world. Therefore it is established that Brahman, and not the insentient Pradhana, is the First Cause.
From this point onward the first chapter turns toward the interpretation of various Upanishadic terms and whether they denote Saguna Brahman, Nirguna Brahman, or something else.