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these are higher celestial regions-graivikas, anudishas and anuttaras-where all but perfect happiness prevails; and above these is the holy Siddha Sila which is the abode of Those who have reached the other shore. The whole of the region below this Abode of Gods is the region of transmigration, known as samsara, which is to be crossed with the aid of the Teacher's Word.
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
To revert to the nature of the soul, jiva or spirit is a substance whose function is to know; and, as shown in an earlier chapter, every soul is endowed by nature with a capacity for infinite knowledge and bliss. As such, every unredeemed soul is like a contracted aspect of knowledge and joy--an idea-rhythm or globule of wisdom charged with bliss. It is not made of matter, though being a substance it cannot be altogether 'immaterial.'
As regards its dimensions, the soul is an expanding and contracting substance, and has no fixed size of its own prior to the attainment of salvation. It is obvious that the soul cannot be smaller than its physical body, for in that case it will not be able to feel the bodily affections as its own. This will be readily agreed to if we take into consideration the proposition that pleasure and pain being affections of the ego, that is to say, modifications of the soul-substance, it is impossible to feel either in a place which is not pervaded by the soul. If it be said that a mental message is received by the soul from the seat of the trouble, then the reply is that there would be no feeling of pleasure or pain on such an assumption; for just as it is impossible for a man to experience the actual sensation of burning and physi
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