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begins to perceive as if the rope has ceased to exist or exert any influence, similarly the soul which is bound down with various kinds of nescient emotions, on being slowly and slowly released from them, beings to feel the glory of salvation. The more and more the streaks of these emotions fade away, the more and more the soul shines in its lustre untarnished with ignorance. As soon as there is a complete extinction of these nescient forces, soul even though it may be delineated by body it blooms out in its full splendour with a consciousness of freedom all round. Thus the soul though residing in this body enjoys the blessings of salvation.
5. TRANSMIGRATION IN LOWER
CONDITIONS OF LIFE. Q. It is said in scriptures that a man after death goes to animal, mineral and vegetable lives according to his actions. Do you think it to be right?
A.-When a soul on death leaves one body to occupy the other, he moves according to his accumulated karmas. In that state sometimes he takes up the animal life and sometimes the mineral one. In mineral state soul experiences the fruits of its karmas only with the help of the touch sense, leaving the other four senses. It does not mean that in mineral state soul becomes earth or stone, rather in this state soul assumes a physical shape akin to stone and itself resides there in an invisible from. Since in this state soul does not possess the other senses besides the touch sense, so it is called Prithvi-kaya- Jiva i. e. a soul with earth body and it is a (Eka-indriya) one-sensed being. By and by after experiencing the fruits of his karmas, when it leaves
that form to assume other forms of life then its earthly body made of stone is merely a heap of particles devoid of life. After the departure of soul it does not evince the instincts of hunger sex, fear & accumulation. Please mind, that a soul in mineral state is not absolutely mineral, it has got a living aspect also. It is all due to its own nescient tendencies, that a soul by their fruetification has to assume an order of life which is one-sensed in consciousness and stonish in physical appearance. It is not merely a stone or a boulder of earth. A soul sometimes assumes the animal form also, but thereby it does not become purely an embodied animal. To assume a bodily form is merely the putting of an apparel, it is not its nature. With regard to the 6th and 7th questions, it will be sufficient to say that stone or earth is not the doer of karmas, rather it is the soul, which is embodied therein, which is the doer of karmas, Inspite of its embodiment, the soul and body are as distinct from each cther as milk and water are. Just as water and milk when mixed together look as one and the same but in reality water is water and milk is milk i. e. in their speciality both of them are separate entities. Similarly though a soul in its one-- sensed mineral state, owing to the bondage of karmas looks like an inanimate stone, yet in reality the soul is soul and it retains its separate entity, for in that state also it experiences the urges of the instincts of hunger, sex, fear and accumulation which are invisible to a naked eye.
8. NATURE OF DHARMA (RELIGION).
Q.-What is the Arya Dharma or the sublime religion ? Is it right that almost all the religions have originated from the Vedas ?
