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## Impure Thoughts and Influx of Karma
**Chapter 4, Verses 72-74 of the Yoga Shastra**
He who has fully understood the difference between impure thoughts and the influx of karma, does not experience pain in his soul even when his body is struck. The Tirthankara, the Supreme Being, Lord Mahavira, endured many hardships for 12 years. Sangamdev threw the Kalchakra at him, and the cowherds poured cooked rice on his feet. Yet, the Lord, who experienced the body as distinct from the soul, did not experience sorrow in his soul.
Namiraja, the knower of the distinction between body and soul, was in Mithila when the city was burning. Devendra said to him, "Your Mithila is burning." Namiraja replied, "Nothing of mine is burning." He who understands this distinction, even if he experiences sorrow related to his father, does not become sorrowful. However, if sorrow befalls his servant, he experiences sorrow because of his attachment and possessiveness. Knowing that "even a son is not his own, but another," he accepts the servant as his own, and thus feels greater affection for him than for his son.
Just as a royal treasurer keeps another's wealth separate, so too, you, the blessed soul, should understand this and abandon false thoughts. Continuously embrace the feeling of otherness, which cuts away attachment. Thus, the feeling of otherness is perfected. 71.
Now, we speak about impure thoughts.
**Verse 72:**
**Meaning:** After eating, it becomes rasa (juice), from rasa comes blood, from blood comes flesh, from flesh comes fat, from fat comes marrow, from marrow comes semen, from semen comes intestines, and from intestines comes excrement. Thus, this body is a receptacle of impure substances. How then can this body be considered pure?
**Verse 73:**
**Meaning:** To those who consider the body pure, we say: Two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, a mouth, an anus, and a penis - these are the nine openings in a man's body, and twelve in a woman's. From these, constantly flows filth (foul, disgusting matter), which clings to the body. To imagine purity in such a foul body is the very irony of great delusion.
**Inner Verses:**
The body, born from semen and menstrual blood, nourished by the essence of excrement, and covered in the womb by a thin membrane, how can it be pure? Nourished by the rasa (juice) that flows through the nerves, produced from the food, water, and drinks consumed by the mother, who would consider this body pure? Filled with impurities and the waste of the elements, a place for worms, earthworms, and other creatures, with disease-ridden serpents coiled around it, who would call this body pure? Even if fragrant substances like sandalwood, camphor, musk, and cardamom are ground and applied to cleanse it, they too become soiled after a while. How then can this body be pure? If you chew fragrant betel and sleep at night, and smell your mouth in the morning, you will find a foul odor. How then can this body be considered pure? Even naturally fragrant scents, incense, and garlands of flowers become foul when they come into contact with the body. How then can this body be called pure? Like a dirty wine jar, this body cannot be purified even by hundreds of oil massages or by washing it with millions of jars of water. Those who say that the body is purified by earth, water, air, or sunlight should be considered fools. This is like saying that a physician can be made by drawing lines on the ground. Only by cultivating detachment towards the body through the feeling of impurity can a seeker overcome the great burden of lust, pride, and attachment. What more can be said? This is the feeling of impurity. 73.
**Verse 74:**
**Meaning:** The activities of the mind, speech, and body are called yoga (actions). Through these yogas, the influx of karma occurs in beings, and thus they are called asravas (influxes).