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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
fully perfected soul, the Siddhâtman, enjoying immortality and bliss and all other divine qualities of which as a samsari jiva it was deprived, owing to the evil influence of matter.
This is the only way of conquering death, to acquire immortality. But while the soul is debarred from the enjoyment of true immortality so long as it is unable to escape from the wheel of transmigration, it is undoubtedly endowed with practically unlimited power to triumph over sickness and disease. Old age, too, not a calamity which cannot be made to fly away to a great distance, even if not altogether avoided; nor are accidents which so often have a fatal ending necessarily included in the class of things which the soul must put up with. We shall deal with each of these causes of premature death separately to be able to understand their nature better.
To begin with disease, it will be observed that it is neither a function of the organism nor a state consistent with the natural condition of the body, inasmuch as the organism itself tries to throw it off even when unaided by medical skill and medicaments. The natural normal condition of a living organism is health which is regained the moment disease is eliminated from it. The question, then, is what is disease, and how and why does it appear in the organism? The reply is that it is a run down state of health, and its cause, in each and every instance, is to be found in the low vitality of the system. Whether it be an ordinary malady, such as common fever, or the most virulent form of an epidemic, health cannot be affected where the vitality is strong enough to resist the onslaught of disease-bearing ele
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