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On the other hand, all living organisms, with their souls defiled by karman, have piecemeal and fragmented knowledge, intuition and energy; possess perverted faith and embodied existence; experience joy and grief and have a limited life-span and are therefore, subject to cycles of birth and death. Karman, the alien physical substance, infects and defiles all worldly organisms and veils, vitiates or obstructs the above mentioned eight qualitites (gunas) of a pure soul and keeps it away from its supreme state of existence.
Modus Operandi of Karman
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Bondage (Bandha) · Here karman does not mean activity but the unification of a soul with material aggregates of kārmaṇa vargaṇā (group) as a result of the activities of the soul. Subtle-most matter of kārmaṇa vargaṇā fills the entire cosmos. The defiled mundane soul, under the influence of passions and emotions, is always engaged in some action. Any activity— mental, vocal or physical—produces vibrations in the soul and attracts these aggregates of matter which are then transformed into a transcendental psycho-physical force called karman. 1
This union of jiva and karman is like that of milk and water. The resultant state is bandha (bondage). The karman may remain latent/ supine for a time and then it rises (fructifies), manifests and gives its fruit — karmaphala. The duration and intensity of fruition depends upon the emotional state at the moment of bondage. Once the karman has delivered its fruit, it loses its potency and it ceases to be karman i.e. separates from the soul.
The Species of Karman
Since there are eight innate qualities of the soul, there are eight primary types (mūla-prakṛti) of karman.
1. Even as a lamp by its temperature draws up the oil with its wick and, after drawing up, converts the oil into its body (viz., glow), exactly so does a soul-lamp, with the attributes of attachment and the like, attract the material aggregates by the wick of its activities and after arrtacting, transforms them into karman.
-Tattvärthasūtra-Bhāṣya Ṭikā
(ix)
