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38
THE PRACTICAL PATH.
but becomes defiled by it when existing in the condition of water, so, owing to the influence of the material already in combination with it, does the soul become liable to be forced into union with certain types of matter which cannot assail it directly.
We thus observe that the union of soul and matter is simply fraught with evil for the jiva, whose condition scarcely differs from that of a man thrown into prison and thereby deprived of his freedom of action. The kârmâna sharira is a sort of self-adjusting prison for the soul and constantly accompanies it through all its incarnations, or births. Subject to modification at the end of each form of life, it is again and again attracted into a new womb, organising, mechanically, the outer encasement of gross matter by the energies inherent within its own form.
Thus the conditioning of the physical body, and of the circumstances depending on that body---descent, family, status, wealth and the like--is the result of the mechanical operation of the force of karma stored up in the kârmâna sharira.
This karmic force is dealt with by the Jaina Siddhanta under the following eight heads :
(1) jñânå varaniya, or the knowledge-obstructing group ;
(2) darsanâvaraniya, or the class of forces which interfere with perception;
(3) vedaniya, i.e., the class of prakritis (energies) which determine and regulate the experiencing of pleasure and pain;
(4) mohaniya, that is to say, the forces which produce delusion;
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