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SAMVARA.
71
understood that habits play no unimportant part in the operation of the force of karma, since an action repeated a number of times has a tendency to become automatic.
Thus, the operation of the law of karma is governed by the two following rules, namely, (i) every action affects that part of the kârmana sarira which corresponds to the physical organ concerned, or involved, in its performance, or in the mental suggestion relating to its performance, and (ii) every repetition leans towards the automatism of habit.
So far as the first of these two rules is concerned, it is not difficult to perceive that the influx of matter should affect the kârmâna sarira in a part corresponding to the physical organ involved in the doing of any particular act, because it is the organ principally concerned in the deed, and, therefore, the only natural seat of influx.
As regards the second rule, also, it is clear that habit implies an unconscious intensification of the impulse to act, and means neither more nor less than the tightening of bonds, though in the case of virtuous deeds every repetition has the effect of making the bondage more and more pleasant.
Those who do not control their passions and evil actions, thus, run the risk of becoming perfect slaves to their sway, and may have to experience consequences which they little dream of in this life
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