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HOW TO BE RID OF MATTER
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passage from Clementine Homilies occurs is: “ Willing Captives."
" For the demons having power by means of the food given to them, are admitted into your bodies by your own hands; and lying hid there for long time, they become blended with your souls. And through the carelessness of those who think not, or even wish to help themselves, upon the dissolution of their bodies, their souls being united to the demon are of necessity borne by it into whatever places it pleases."-(Clementine Homilies) A.N.C.L. vol. xvii. p. 162.
The significance of the above is only this that the matter absorbed by the soul gives rise, in the natural way, to powerful forces, known as karma-prakritis (karmic forces) in the Jaina Literature, which determine its future reincarnation amidst suitable surround
ings.
3. (Desires are curbed and controlled by Faith and Knowledge and the Fear of Consequences) :
"But some one will say, And what shall we do now, to whom it has already happened to be smeared with sing as with pitch? I answer: Nothing; but hasten to be washed, that the fuel of fire mey be cleansed out of you by the invocation of the holy name, and that for the future you may bridle your lusts by the fear of the judgment to come, and with all constancy beat back the hostile powers whenever they approach your senses."-(Recognitions of Clement) A.N.C.L. vol. iii. pp. 407-408.
"There is therefore & measure of faith, which, if it be per. fect, drives the demon perfectly from the soul; but if it has any defect, something on the part of the demon still remains in the portion of infidelity; and it is the greatest difficulty for the soul to understand when or how, whether fully or less fully, the demon h&s been expelled from it. For if he remains in any quarter, when he gets an opportunity, he suggests thoughts to men's hearts; and they, not knowing whence they come, believe the suggestions of the demons, as if they were the perceptions of their own souls."-Ibid. p. 292.
