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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
influenced by matter, only so long as it exists in a state of impurity. It is owing to the influence of material impurities that it wanders about in the samsára, seeking perfection and joy. Itself the subject of knowledge, it wanders about like a query__'?'-trying to define itself, and, under the blinding influence of matter, again and again, identifies itself with its body. Its natural rhythm of freedom is consequently unable to assert itself, and undergoes all kinds of changes--the number of their types has been estimated at 84,00,000—in the course of transmigration. When the jivic consciousness vibrates in harmony with the rhythm of its physical personality, it can only extract such pleasures from life as are possible to a jiva vibrating at that low level. The joy of life increases as it raises the tone of its rhythm to higher potencies, the most perfect of which is called the Tirthamkara, or God-rhythm.
In connection with the subject of inflow of matter into souls, it is to be borne in mind that they are involved in bondage from begin ningless time. If it were otherwise, we should have either a creation of souls, or the descending of a perfect Jiva, ie., God, to enter into crippling relations with matter, to His own detriment. But both these propositions are untenable in philosophy. A third alternative which may be put forward is that the jivas are locked up in some air-tight compartment, and that a certain number of them is sent out into the world, from time to time, to undergo evolution. Here again the question arises : is this air-tight compartment full of pure souls, or of those involved in impurity? But the former alternative is untenable, be
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