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103
Ätmasiddhi
oxygen become hydrogen. The atoms of hydrogen retain their properties and the atom of oxygen retains its own. Those properties simply remain latent so long as the composition lasts. This becomes evident when hydrogen and oxygen are separated by the appropriate process. Then they again manifest their own distinct properties.
In this connection, it is worth pointing out what the great poet Banarasidas said about the soul and lifeless matter. He stated that equanimity, elegance, sublimation, knowing capability, happiness, experiencing, and consciousness are the seven manifest attributes of the soul. On the other hand, existence in the form of body, mind, speech, non-cognizance, aggregation, lightness, heaviness, etc. are the attributes of lifeless matter.
These attributes of the soul are explained by Shrimad in Vachanämrut # 436, 437, and 438. Moreover, he stated (Vachanämrut # 266):
Jad Bhäve Jad Pariname, Chetan Chetan Bhäv; Koi Koi Palate Nahin, Chhodi Äp Swabhäv.
It means: Lifeless matter turns into lifelessness and the conscious soul into consciousness. No substance changes into something else and gives up its own original properties.
Every original substance thus retains its property and does not adopt the property of a different substance. Similarly, though the body and conscious soul happen to occupy the same space, they do not adopt the properties of each other and cannot be reduced to one matter. They were two separate substances in the past, they are separate in the present, and will remain so in the future.
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