________________
210
PHILOSOPHY OF SOUL
You must have come across the word "Asta Karma". The word occurs in prostration-prayers, normal prayers and religious poems. The word "Asta Karma" means 'eight-fold nature' of Karma.
HOW BOND OF PHYSICAL FRAME IS CONTRACTED?
Bondage of physical frame (Ayushya Karma Bandh) is contracted only once in life time and the rest seven forms of Karma are contracted occasionally. No worldly soul can remain without contracting the bondage of physical form during its worldly
existence.
One can continue to live till one has physical frame. When that 'Karma' is consumed that body is abandoned and the new one is assumed. When you hold a ticket valid for travelling upto Sirat, you have to get down at Surat. You cannot extend your journey further with the same ticket.
Whatever physical frame you contracted in the previous life, you enjoy it in this life. Whatever body you contract in this life you shall have to enjoy it in the next life. Till your life thread extends you can live and can make the best of it for the welfare of the soul. If you waste your life recklessly, bondage of Karmas will be contracted and you will have to wander in many existences to reap the rewards of the same Karmas and you also know well what tortures and miseries one has to experience in these existences.
It is within your control to contract in this life, a particular type of next life. If you practise charity, righteousness, austerities cultivate tenderness of feelings you will contract human life or celestial life. If you fall a prey to luxuries and passions you will contract the life of an animal or a denizen of hell. You believe that with the passage of time or days, you grow older and your life is protracted, but this is only an illusion. When a day is over, your life is shortened by a day; but in this world misnotions often prevail.
Some one asked a wise man, "Are you alright?" The wise man replied, "How can one expect to be alright when everyday life is being shortened?" But you have no such worries and you presume to be alright when your life is fleeting fast.
