No consequence can happen without a precedent Cause. It is the entire, the total basis on which the product rests. Consider a silver cup, for example. The cup has no existence apart from silver. When the silver, which can be shaped into a cup, is absent, the product too is absent.
Silver is the material cause.
The cup is the form imposed on silver by the efficient cause, the Nimitta Kaarana. It is the consequence of art, artificial. Silver is the pre-existent Cause, the Upaadaana kaarana. A silversmith prepares the cup. Once the cup is ready, the smith has no affinity with it.