Practical Path

SR No.: 006703
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1917
Total Pages: 268
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 11 MB

Page 50

BANDHA.
37
complete annihilation of their natural properties, but only a suspension of their functions, in varying degree, according to the quality and quantity of the material absorbed. Thus, the effect of the fusion of spirit and matter is manifested in the form of a compound-personality which partakes of the nature of both, without actually destroying either. Hence, the jîva involved in the cycle of births and deaths manifests something of the nature of both, pure spirit and matter, the quality of omniscience appearing in the form of knowledge dependent on the activity of senses and mind, that of right belief in the form of wrong and absurd notions, of infinite power in the guise of bodily prowess, and of infinite happiness, as sensations of pleasure and pain through the senses. On the other hand, attraction and repulsion, which are the properties of matter, assume the form of attachment and hatred, giving rise to all kinds of emotions and passions, greed, anger and the like. Another effect of the unhappy union between spirit and matter is the liability to death from which pure spirit is perfectly immune, but which, together with its companion, birth, is a constant source of dread to an un-evolved, that is to say, an unemancipated soul. The fusion of spirit and matter also exposes the soul to danger from another quarter from which it enjoys complete immunity as pure spirit. This additional source of trouble consists in the inflow of fresh matter in consequence of the operation of the forces of magnetism, chemical affinity and the like, residing in the material already in union with the soul. As gaseous matter is not liable to combine with the element of earth in its natural purity,