Fundamentals Of Jainism

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Veer Nirvan Bharti

Page 27

ASRAVA
spirit does not imply the negativity of the soul in the least degree, and, therefore, is unaccompanied by the asrava of matter, virtuous actions are only calculated to render captivity pleasant and agreeable to the soul. Thus, virtue is as much a cause of bondage as vice from the stand-point of him who aspires for perfect liberation.
Certain types of mental attitude strikingly demonstrate the operation and effect of asrava on the soul. Such, for instance, is the case with mental depression when the soul is literally weighted down by a kind of sukshma (fine) particles of matter. The samo is the case with excessive grief, a general tendency towards pessimism, and the like. What seems to happen in such cases is that certain kinds of feelings weaken the intensity of the rhythm of the soul, exposing it to the influx of the particles of matter from its physical organism itself. As an oily surface soon becomes covered over with dust, so does the soul attract to itself and is depressed (from de-down, and pressum to press) by a large number of particles of matter from within its own outer encasement of flesh. It is to be borne in mind that the soul's association with the outer body of gross matter is not of the same type as that with the karmana sharira, for while it becomes intimately fused with the particles of finer matter of which that subtle body is made, there is no such fusion in the case of the gross body. The idea of the association of the soul with its three bodies may be partially grasped by likening it to oxygen and the matter of the karmána śarira to hydrogen which combine together to form water. If we now throw some colouring matter into the liquid, formed by the fusion of hydrogen and oxygen, we should have an idea of the form of the taijasa sharira. The position occupied by these two bodies in relation to that of gross matter is something like that which comes into existence by holding the volume, or mass, of coloured liquid in a sponge, so that the liquid saturates every portion of the sponge without actually becoming fused or united with it. There is, however, this important, distinction to be drawn between the sponge and the physical organism that while the former is an independent article, the latter is only organised by the soul which is to become ensouled in it.
To return to the influx of matter into the soul, the idea of