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RE-INCARNATION.
823
So far as the karmåna śarîra is concerned, its existence is proved by the fact that a body of subtle matter is an absolute necessity for the sojourn of the soul in the regions of decas, demons and men, since a bodiless spirit at once rises up to the top of the world, to take its place among Gods. Hence the existence of a force which prevents its rising to the Holy Siddha Sila is a sine quâ non to its remaining entangled in the samsára. Notr, since force cannot be conceived apart from matter of some kind or other, it is obvious that the bondage of the soul is due to its being imprisoned in some kind of an encasement or body of matter. It is this encasement, or body, of finer matter which is called the kârmâna sarira in the Jaina Scripture. That this body cannot be the body of gross matter itself, is evident from the fact that its existence is a condition precedent to the -making of the outer visible body. If it were otherwise, absence would render the gull between spirit (soul) and gross matter unbridgeable, waking it impossible for the ego to comcin contact with or to use his bodily limbs. As to this the following observations of Dr. J. Bovee Dods (Mesmerism and Electrical Psychology, pp. 13 and 14) may be read with advantage :
“It is evident that there is no direct contact between mind and gross matter. There is no direct contact between the length of a thought and the breadth of that door ; nor is there any more contact between my mind and hand than there is between my mind and the stage upon which I stand. Thought cannot touch my hand; yet it must be true that mind can come in contact with matter; otherwise I could not raise my hand at all by the energies of my will. Hence, it must be true that the highest and most ethereal inert matter in the universe, being the next step to spirit, can come in contact with mind, And electricity, changed into nervo-vital fluid (which is living galvanism) is certainly the highest and the most ethereal inert substance of which we can form any conception,"
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