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IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF GODS.
893
longing to embrace, it further follows that the union, or fusion, of spirit and matter cannot take place unless the soul be first thrown into an attitude of desire. Itself a dynamic force or substance by nature, the quality of soul's rhythm is affected by the entertainment of desire, and it is consequently exposed to the influx of the particles of matter which readily combine with it, limiting its functions in different ways. Our second law of interaction between spirit and matter may now be formulated as follows: the fusion of spirit and matter does not take place except where the soul is thrown into a condition of expectancy, or desire, i.e., weakness.
It is a corollary to this that the giving up of desires which produce the condition of weakness in the soul must necessarily bring about its liberation from the thraldom of matter, also called the bondage of karma, on account of karmas being the primary causes of the material influx and bandha.
As regards the quality of bandha, the rule appears to be that the stronger the desire the deeper the penetration of the particles of matter and the closer the union between them and the soul, so that the worst forms of bondage result from the worst types of desires. Now, desire principally assumes four different forms and appears as greed, deceit, pride and anger. Greed, it will be seen, is but another word for desire, to gratify which one resorts to deceit; and pride arises from the possession of what is desirable, while anger blazes up in consequence of being foiled in an endeavour to secure an object of desire or from wouuded pride. These four kinds of passions, thus, are the main causes of bondage,
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