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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE. is preserved in the kârmána sarira, the seed as well as the vehicle of re-birth, and constitutes the nucleus of potential energy or force for the life to come. At the moment of death the soul enwrapped in its two inner vestments is separated from the physical body of gross matter, and immediately enters a new womb. This operation, which takes much less time than is required for its description, is performed mechanically by the soul, in obedience to the action of the chemical and magnetic forces residing in the two inner bodies, the kârmâna and ta ijasa śarîras. The transference of the soul from a dying organism to the selected base of fresh activities being complete, the process of organising an outer body immediately begins, resulting, in due course of time, in a new re-birth in fresh environments and surroundings.
If we now bear in mind the fact that the physical body is the objectification of will, as already shown, we shall have no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that the power of the organism to resist the onslaught of the microbes and elements of disease and old age, in other words, the vitality of the system, is primarily dependent on the nature of the forces stored up in the karmánu sarîra. Whether it be regarded as a chemical property of the physical matter of the organism, the effect of the conjunction of the body and soul stored up in the structure of nerves, muscles and bones or in any other way, it is certain that vitality is dependent, in the first instance, on the operation of forces responsible for the making of the body itself ; for the differences in the degree of resistance offered by different systems to
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