efficient cause

Um, uh, that is the, the, the, um, the substance of which something is made.

And nimitta kāraṇa is the efficient cause.

So for example, um, what is the cause for a table? The wood of which it is composed is the upadana kāraṇa, the material cause.

The carpenter who shaped it into a table, uh, is the nimitta kāraṇa.

So this is what you said.

This is also the view of Sri Ramana as expressed in verse 85 of Guru Vachaka Kovai, English translation.

Self itself is only what appears as the world with many kinds of names and forms, but it is not one who as a nimitta, in brackets an efficient cause, does any actions such as creating, sustaining, and destroying that.

That means the world.