निमित्तमप्रयोजकं प्रकृतीनांवरणभेदस्तु ततः क्षेत्रिकवत् ॥३॥
nimittam aprayojakam prakritinam varana bhedastu tatah kshetrikavat ||3||

[RS] 4.3 However, outer causes are not sufficient to bring about inner change, which can be likened to a farmer removing a sluice gate so as to allow water to irrigate his rice field so that rice can grow there.

[JW] 4.3 The efficient cause gives no impulse to the evolving-causes but [the mutation] follows when the barrier [to the evolving cause] is cut, as happens with the peasant.

[SS] 4.3 Incidental events do not directly cause natural evolution; they just remove the obstacles as a farmer [removes the obstacles in a water course running to his field]. [p208]

[EB] 4.3 The instrumental cause of creation is not its creative cause, but it pierces the covering from creation like a farmer [pierces the barriers between his fields]. [p409]


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nimitta = visible cause

aprayojakaṁ = non-causal; not relevant

prakṛti = nature; matter; creation; physical

varaṇa = a wall around a rice field, which is cleft when the field is irrigated, thus allowing water to flow onto the field.

bheda = removal; splitting

tu = but

tataḥ = thence

kṣetrikavat = like a farmer