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THE DOCTRINE OF LESYA
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Leśyā. Everything which is matter, or mixed up with matter has some kind or other of touch, taste, smell and odour. Our mind and its activity are no exception. They are material and have colour, which they change with every change of their thought activity. A black-hearted man', and 'red with rage', 'pale with fear', 'green with jealously'; these are familiar phrases. Our thoughts and emotions have a very intimate connection with colours. We may be said to have thought-paints; but the primary ones are black, blue, grey, yellow, pink or red and white. The Leśyās are the soul's vibrations effected by mild and strong passions. They illustrate the temperamental grades of greed, etc. The colourshades, as enumerated are transcendental and not physical.
Nemicandra Siddhānta Cakravarti has stated that according to the knowers of the attributes of Leśyā, bhāva leśyā (thought paint) is that which stains the soul and which the soul makes it his own resulting in punya (merit) and pāpa (demerit).3 Colour or paint is a condition of the matter. The soul itself is without form, taste, smell, colour or touch. Colour is an essential and peculiar character of matter. Consciousness is the characteristic of the soul and modifications do take place on account of thought activities. These modifications are also formless and colourless. When the activities of the body, mind and speech as also the passions create vibrations, there takes place, as already noted, an influx of matter into the soul which causes bondage. It is this vibratory activity which becomes coloured by the operation of the Karmas.4 We have already noted that it is the vibratory activities which determine not only the nature of Karmic matter but also the number of Karinic molecules that bind the soul and that it is the intensity of the passions that determines the duration of the bondage and the character of its fruition.
As stated already, there are six kinds of Leśyas (paints), namely: Kșşņa (black), nila (blue), kapota (dove-grey), teja (yellow), padma (pink) and śukla (white). It may however be noted that from the view–point of modifications, these colours are innumerable. Leśyā is of two kinds, bhāva-leśyā and dravya
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