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in the mundane state. The actual power expressed depends on the development of consciousness of the soul; it is least expressed in virus like organisms and highly expressed in human beings. The psychical karma, though not essential for the existence of the material body, have a definite role in development of consciousness. These karmas are retained by the soul up to a certain stage of development (in human body) and then gradually dropped by intentional efforts in order to proceed towards liberation. The physiological karma on the other hand are essential for having a material body, they are fully dropped just before liberation so that the soul becomes free of body.
The bond duration may be short (say, minutes, hours, days, and weeks), medium (say, months, years) and long up to thousands of years. It is assumed that the short and medium duration karmas are enjoyed in the present life and the long-term karmas are carried forward to the next life or further. The bonded karma lasts in a dormant state in the karma body for a certain period during which it does not exercise any operational influence on the soul except limiting its powers. After the expiry of the bonding period the karma becomes active and causes the karma body to vibrate. The vibration waves emitting out of karma body are known as adhyavasaya. We have adhyavasaya of different kinds depending on the nature of maturing karma but we shall, as before, restrict to two kinds, the psychical adhyavasaya and physiological adhyavasaya. It was mentioned earlier that the soul is divided in innumerable parts, called pradesas. Karmas bond uniformly on each pradesa so that each predesa has all the Karmas. Karma contains information record typical of the activity causing it. So the total and identical information about the past activities of the soul is available on each pradesa. For the convenience of explanation let us assume that the number of pradesa of the soul is equal to, or some multiple of, the number of cells in the body in the grown up state. All the pradesa emit adhyavasaya waves of the same kind at any instant. The karma body is seen to contain the features of a hologram; every part of it contains total and identical information. 2.2 Tejas Body
Besides karma body the soul also has a tejas or luminous body, a part of which discharges the function of prana body. The prana body is composed of another field made up of Tejas vargnā. The prana body is actuated by some physiological adhyavasaya, so that it draws tejas vargna from the cosmos, by the process of resonance, and transmits them to every cell of the material body. The supply of subtle energy through tejas vargņā is regarded essential for functioning of the cells, in the absence of prana the material body is dead. The functioning of prana body is also connected to the breathing process, interruption in prana supply stops breathing. Breathing, like prana body, is also controlled by physiological adhyavasaya.
Arhat Vacana, 23 (4), 2011
