________________
12
THE PRACTICAL DHARMA
äsrava of matter, virtuous actions are only calculated to render captivity pleasant and agreeable to the soul. Thus, virtue is as much a cause of bondage as vice from the standpoint of him who aspires for perfect liberation.
Certain types of mental attitude strikingly demonstrate the operation and effect of äsrava on the soul. Such, for instance, is the case with mental depression when the soul is literally weighted down, that is to say, when its rhythm of free-functioning is clogged by a kind of suksma (fine) matter.* The same is the case with excessive grief, a general tendency towards pessimism, and the like. What seems to happen in such cases is that certain kinds of feelings weaken the intensity of the rhythm of the soul, exposing it to the influx of the particles of matter from its physical organism itself. As an oily surface soon becomes covered over with dust, so does the soul attract to itself and is depressed (from de down, and pressum to press) by a large number of particles of matter from within its own outer encasement of flesh. It is to be borne in mind that the soul's association with the outer body of gross matter is not of the same type as that with the kūrmāņa śarīra, for while it becomes intimately fused with the particles of finer matter of which that subtle body is made, there is no such fusion in the case of the gross body. The idea of the association of the soul with its three bodies may be partially grasped hy likening it to oxygen and the matter of the kārmāņa śarīra to hydrogen which combine together to form water. If we now throw some colouring matter into the liquid, formed by the fusion of hydrogen and oxygen, we should have an idea of the form
* Those who are not familiar with the nature of material parallelism in human psychology may not find it easy to admit that delight and depression are accompanied by mental modifications due to the influence or readjustment of matter, but the fact is that no mental modifications can possibly arise in our consciousness unless they be caused by a material agent, which means the presence and action of matter in some way. Pure thoughts and words, apart from an operative accompanying material agency are unthinkable in the case of a finite mind. Sleep itself indicates the benumbing influence of matter on the mind. Certain vital centres in the constitution of the soul are affected by the material readjustment, or inflow, and characteristic states ensure from the changed conditions. There is nothing in the whole range of the human or animal psychology to indicate that feelings and emotions and states of consciousness generally can be caused or changed without a cause whatsoever, or that a cause can consist of pure immateriality.
