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RE-INCARNATION.
811
as it were, to embrace the slower rhythms of the qualities of matter. This results in the loss of its free rhythm of intension, and in the acquisition of the slower types of rhythm corresponding to the qualities of matter. In some cases, the quality of the pure rhythm of freedom becomes so much defiled and vitiated that the jiva can find solace only in the 'embrace' of matter. Smoking and drinking furnish fairly good illustrations of the polluting influence of matter on the soul, whose purer instincts, at first, revolt at the very sight of the things named, but later, when habituated to their use, become debased into a longing, and, in the worst cases, into an insatiable craving for them. The craving itself arises from the fact that the sensible qualities of matter, that is, colour, odour, and the like, cause only momentary satisfaction to the soul, which, having acquired a taste for them, feels ill at ease, like a fish out of water, when not in contact with them. Hence, the lower rhythms corresponding to the qualities of matter becoming predominant in the nature of the jiva, it feels a sort of void when not embracing their objects.
It can also be seen without much difficulty that all evil passions and emotions, and the foul deeds, also, which they lead men to commit, arise from the free indulgence of the senses. For instance, a person in whom the craving for liquor has passed the limit of control will readily do anything to obtain the means for procuring it, passing, by imperceptible degrees of moral degradation, from the self-abasing begging of money as a favour, to theft, and also, at times, to robbery and murder. That the unconquerable longing for the grati
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