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THE CAUSES OF BONDAGE
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in walking, in food accepted, in placing things, in lying down and sitting and in speech. The moral virtues are ten. These are the five causes of bondage whether concurrently or severally. In the case of the misbeliever all the five causes operate. In the case of those in the second, third and fourth stages of spiritual development, the four causes commencing from nonabstinence operate. In the case of beings in the fifth stage of development, non-abstinence-cum-abstinence, negligence, the passions and the activities operate. In the case of the ascetic in the sixth stage of development negligence, passions and activities operate. Passions and activities alone operate in the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth stages of development. In the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth stages, activities alone operate. In the last stage there is no cause for bondage. The causes of bondage have been described.
Now what is bondage ?
सकषायत्वाज्जीवः कर्मणो योग्यान्पुद्गलानादत्ते स बन्धः ॥२॥ Sakaṣāyatrājjiraḥ karmairo yogyānpudgalānādatte sa bandhah
(22) 2. The individual self attracts particles of matter which are fit to turn into karma, as the self is actuated by passions. This is bondage.
Sakaṣāya' means associated with passions. The nature of being associated with passions is the cause. Why is the cause mentioned again ? Just as the digestive fire of the stomach (the gastric fluid or juice) absorbs food suitable to it, so also the self attracts karmas of duration and fruition corresponding to the virulent, mild or moderate nature of the passions. How does the soul which is immaterial take in karmic matter? In answer to this question the author commences the sutra with the word 'jiva'. That which lives is jiva. It is called jiva because it has vitality and life. For the sake of brevity the sutra may read karnayogyān instead of karmano yogyān. But the splitting is intended to indicate another idea or statement. What is that other statement ? It is that the living being is actuated by passions on account of karmas. This is what is implied. Karmano is the expression of the
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