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Letter 1
minute Karmic atoms ( 854 ) get attracted and attached ( bonded) to the soul. I will explain to you this Karma theory later.
Because of wrong thinking that the union of body and soul is one's real self, each one has this misconception that this body is 'me' or' myself'. He thinks, 'if my body is tall I am tall; if it is fair, I am fair, if it is sick, I am sick. When the body and soul are united, I am born; when they separate I am dead'. When bodily comforts are present, 'I am happy'.
Therefore he tries to acquire material things and possessions which he thinks are necessary for his so called happiness. And then he strives and struggles day and night to earn money for acquiring these material things. Well, this is another subject different from our present discussion.
Since you both are students of science, I will give you an example from chemistry. Students of science and those who are intellectuals understand this subject of philosophical principles easily. And then they become more and more interested in it.
Jainism is in fact, science of substances, i.e. Dravya sou or knowledge of true nature of existence of various substances. We study matter in physics. But according to Jain philosophy matter is only one of the six substances. Soul is another one of those six substances. Our Jain philosophy explains in details the true nature of this 'soul'. And thereafter it tells you as to how to experience one's own soul in the pure form.
Once one realises that soul substance is in fact his/her identity, any intellectual person would be eager to know the true nature of the soul in its original/pure form. The anxiety and enthusiasm of knowing the true nature of soul i.e. one's own self can be compared to the happiness of a boy who is brought up in an orphanage, suddenly meets his parents.
I was about to give you an example from chemistry. We know that H2O is a water molecule and it is a combination of 'H2' and 'O'. In this the characteristics of 'O' or Oxygen are different from the characteristics of water or "H2O'. Therefore if we want to know the characteristics of Oxygen alone and at the same time want to separate it from "H2O', we have to first believe that it has different qualities and characteristics than that of water and that it can be separated from it (water). It has to be leared from chemistry teacher. We will have to learn and experiment the process which is needed to separate Oxygen from water. And only then we can get pure Oxygen very easily.
Similarly the characteristics and qualities of pure soul are different from the qualities of the conjunction of body + soul. An embodied soul
