Practical Path

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

Page 49

CHAPTER V. BANDHA.
It must be obvious to all thinking minds that every slight contact of matter with spirit does not necessarily imply their fusion, so that all the particles of matter which come in contact with the soul do not necessarily combine with it to cause its bondage. Hence, the Jaina Siddhânta divides bondage into two classes, sâmprâyika and iryâpatha. Of these, the former signifies the fusion of spirit and matter, and the latter only a momentary contact between them.
The absorption of matter by the soul results in the formation of a compound-personality in which the natural attributes of spirit become suppressed to a greater or less extent, according to the nature and quantity of the particles absorbed. Just as hydrogen and oxygen are deprived of their natural freedom during the period of their fusion in the form of water, so is a soul debarred from the full exercise of its natural attributes while in union with matter; and just as the separation of hydrogen and oxygen from one another results in restoring to them their natural properties in the fullest degree of manifestation, so does the removal of matter from the constitution of the soul establish it in its natural perfection as a pure spirit. It follows from this that the union of spirit and matter does not imply a