Depending on the validity of sense-perception, the Mlmamsa believes in the reality of the world with all its diverse objects.

It rejects, therefore, the Buddhistic theory of voidness and momentariness, as well as the Advaita theory of the unreality of the phenomenal world.

In addition to objects perceived it comes to believe, through other sources of knowledge, in souls, heaven, hell and deities to whom sacrifice is to be performed, according to the Vedic commandments.

The souls are permanent, eternal substances, and so also are the material elements by the combination of which the world is made. The law of karma is thought sufficient to guide the formation of objects.

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The world is composed of

(a) Living bodies wherein the souls reap we consequences of their past deeds (bhogayatana).

(b) The sensory and motor organs, i.e. the indriyas, which are instruments far suffering or enjoying those consequences (bhoga-sadhana).

(c) The objects which constitute the fruits to be suffered enjoyed (bhogyavisaya). No necessity is felt for admitting the existence of God. Some Mimamsakas believe like the Vaisesikas in the atomic theory.

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But the difference is that, according to the mimamsa, atoms do not require, for their arrangement in the world, an efficient cause like God.

The autonomous law of karma independently regulates the atoms. There is neither creation nor total destruction. ‘The world is eternally there.’ This Mimamsa view is unique in Indian Philosophy.

The Mimamsakas mostly follow the Vaisesika conception of Padarthas and their sub-classes. The important points on which they differ from the Vaisesikas may be noted here.

The Prabha Kara does not admit non-existence as a separate reality, but consider it to be but an aspect of its locus. All Mimamsakas recognise Sakti (potency) as an important causal factor, some accepting it as a new padartha, others as a quality inherent in a cause.

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Some reject Visesa and Samavaya, and admit only the remaining five padarthas. Some admit Sound (Sabda) as an eternal substance, the audible sounds being regarded as its manifestations.

In these deviations, even the writers of the same school sometimes differ among themselves.

The Mimamsa metaphysics is then pluralistic and realistic. It is not empiricism, because it believes in the non-empirical vedic source of knowledge which is thought even to be more dependable than sense-experience and also because it believes in many realities like potential energy, the unseen moral principle, heaven, hell, etc., which cannot be known through sense- experience.