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48 Harmless Souls
Good activity is the cause of (the influx of) meritorious (karmic matter), and bad activity is the cause of (the influx of) demeritorious (karmic matter). [6:3 (3/4)]
(There are two kinds of influx, namely) that of persons with passions, which brings about rebirth, and that of persons free from passions which has no effect on rebirth. [6:4 (5)]8
To expand this: Umāsvāti teaches that yoga is the vibration of the soul caused by the activity of speech, the mind and the body. This vibration is in turn the cause of the attraction of groups of karmic particles (although, strictly speaking, this matter only becomes karma as such when it adheres to the soul). Thus, when activity occurs, influx (āsrava) is inevitable: yoga causes the soul to act like a magnet, drawing in karmic matter. All three instigators of yoga can be either good or bad, potentially the causes of the influx of meritorious as well as demeritorious karma.
There are two kinds of asrava, depending upon whether one acts out of passion or not: that activity accompanied by kaṣāya (passions) results in the influx of sāmparāyika karma (rebirth-causing karma), that activity which is free from passions results in the influx of iryapatha karma (short-term karma which has no effect on rebirth). In other words, yoga attracts (karmic) matter to the soul, and kaṣāya causes that matter to adhere to the jiva and to bind it.10
The source materials used in Tattvārtha Sūtra 6 (concerning yoga, äsrava, etc.) are widely dispersed in the canon, deriving from passages in the Bhagavai, the
8
kāyavānmanaḥkarma yogaḥ [TS 6:1]
sa asravaḥ [TS 6:2]
subhaḥ punyasyāśubhaḥ pāpasya [TS 6:3 (3/4)] sakaṣāyākaṣāyayoḥ samparāyikeryapathayoḥ [TS 6:4 (5)] 9 Cf. SS on TS 2:25:
yogo vānmanasakāyavargaṇānimitta ātmapradeśaparispandaḥ 'Yoga is the vibration of the space-points of the soul caused by the group speech, mind and body.'
10
See TS 8:2 (2/3), quoted p. 55, below.
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