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THE PRACTICAL DHARMA
taken in its literal sense, i.e., as devoid of form (nir=without, and ākāra=form), cannot possibly apply to any existent thing. It is, however, applicable to soul or spirit, firstly, because it has no visible form which may be perceived with the eye, and, secondly, because the jīva involved in the cycle of births and deaths has no permanent form of his own. The paramātman, however, differs from the ordinary unemancipated jîva in so far as the destruction of all kinds of karmas places Him for ever beyond the cycle of re-births, fixing His form also incidentally once for all and for ever in the manner described in the tenth chapter of The Key of Knowledge.' This form is the noblest form of all, being that of PERFECT MAN, and the stature of the soul-substance, which on the attainment of complete liberation is freed from the liability to expansion and contraction in the manner of an unevolved jīva, is slightly less than that of the body from which nirvāna is attained.
