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union of spirit and matter in the kârmâna sarira. To put it in the simple language of philosophy, the ayuh karma is the force which determines the duration of the continuance of a particular form or type of the karmâna sarira, upon which depends the association of the soul with its outermost body of matter. Hence, the exhaustion of ayuh is immediately accompanied by the last gasp of life, and the migration of the soul into a new 'womb.'*
RE-INCARNATION.
Thus, a perpetuation of the physical life, that is to say of the outer body of matter as a living organism, is a matter of impossibility; it has to be deserted by its immortal occupant on the determination of his lease of life in each and every case. Hence, while the inevitability of death holds true of all forms of life in the samsara, he who passes out of the cycle of transmigration necessarily rises above death and enjoys immortality. For death holds no sway over simple, that is to say, indestructible things, so that whoever attains to the purity of the nature of his spirit--a simple substancemay hurl defiance in its teeth.
When certain kinds of its malignant karmas, to be described in the next following chapter, are destroyed, the soul becomes freed of its liability to re-birth, and cannot die any more, though it still continues to live in the world of men so long as its dyuh karma remains to be worked off. When this is exhausted, it is left as pure spirit, and immediately ascends to the Siddha Sila at the top of the universe, to reside there for ever, as a
*The word womb' is here used in a general sense and refers to all kinds of births, i.e., modes of being born,
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