Other examples are: burnt wood becomes smoke and ash, a seed turns into a plant.

A human being passes through six irreversible stages of life (ṣaḍ bhāva vikāra), but in fact, of course, change is a continuum: egg, seed, embryo, birth (jāyate), baby (asti, to be), child, youth (vardhate, growth), adult (vipariṇāmate, change to maturity), older (apakṣīyate, decay), and dead. The situation is always new, and can never go back to the old.

This is the case in the empirical reality of īśvara. Cause and effect here belong to the same apparent order of reality mithyā. This order is called the moving, trans-actionable world (vyāvahārika satya) of īśvara. It is important to realize that these are neutral laws of change of cause-effect. Think of action vs. puṇya (auspicious) or pāpa (unfavorable) karma. It is good to know these and play with them and live for a good life.

Matter never stands still, so īśvara is also the changes in matter. But īśvara is not only matter and its change. Īśvara is the underlying pure intelligence/pure knowledge/consciousness of reality. And so īśvara is also called the effective cause (naimittika kāraṇa) of appearing matter. There is only īśvara, brahman, which is like the self. This brings us to the next type of change. That type expresses that the whole rataplan does not undergo any real changes.

This is called vivarta (literally: vortex, illusion, unfolding). Vivarta upādāna kāraṇa is a material cause (upādāna kāraṇam) in which a different form is assumed without giving up one’s own intrinsic nature. For example, mother-of-pearl that appears to be silver, or a piece of desert that appears to be an oasis (mirage), but is a desert. Vivarta could be called an appearance.

Seen in this way, cause and effect belong to different orders of only one reality. The effect actually turns out to be the original or the cause. It is not the truth, but the sense perception (caused by a force called māyā) that fools us, and so knowledge of the original consciousness that I am is enough to bring freedom.

Brahman, independent and unchanging is satya is vivarta upādāna kāraṇam. That is why brahman is called the causeless cause (nirmitta nirmāṇa kāraṇa). Phenomena are caused, but on closer examination they turn out not to be real, but an apparent expression of the cause or ground of them, myself. There seem to be effects coming from Brahman, but this is nothing but Brahman itself with name, form and function. And if there is no effect, there is no cause, hence non-dual.

This non-dual reality, the reality (sat) itself is called pāramārthika-satya (beyond or before, para, goals and effects, arthas).