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THE SEVEN TATTVAS
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or the most passionate longing to embrace. We may then say that the fusion of spirit and matter cannot take place unless the soul be first thrown into an attitude of desire, signifying its willingness to mate with the strangers from without. We thus have the Law of Bandha as: the fusion of spirit and matter does not take place except where the soul is thrown into a condition of expectancy i.e., weakness.
When existing in a vitiated condition, the soul is generally unable to exercise any discrimination and has little or no will of its own. In the worst cases, it is even ignorant of the inimical nature of the *cavaliers' from the outside World, who only need the first invitation to get it, after which they do not leave their victim in a condition to resist any further onslaught on their part.
5.7 Karma-Prakritis: The forces engendered by the fusion of spirit and matter are termed Karma-prakritis. Because they originate in a desire on the part of the soul, which is its own action, they signify karma i.e., action. Being in a nature of powerful forces, they are termed prakritis i.e., energies. The compound resulting from the fusion of spirit and matter shows attributes which are different from that of the pure spirit or in other words, the karma-prakritis do not allow the soul to enjoy its natural perfection in respect of knowledge, perception and happiness etc. The nature of karma-prakritis is not the same for every fusion of matter with the soul, but differs with the type, quality and intensity of desires, passions or emotions of the soul at the time of fusion. Hence the resulting effect on the soul is also different. It is generally found that attributes thus created in the soul give rise to passions of the same type which were responsible for the particular Karma prakriti. The Karma prakritis can be classified into eight broad groups depending upon the type of influence they produce on the soul. We may thus have
· (i) Inanavarniya : i.e., those which obstruct the know
ledge. (ii) Darshanavarniya : i.e., those which obstruct the percep
tion. (iii) Vedaniya : i.e., those which obstruct the natural
bliss of the soul and leaving it to experience pleasure and pain through senses.
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