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RELATION BETWEEN
SOUL AND KARMA
The consciousness of the individual is not identical with the physiological activity of the body; the one may even be dependent upon, but it is different from the other. Consciousness is one thing, activity of brain molecules is another different thing.
Knowledge, when it is right, true and corresponds to the facts, is the essential quality of the soul; it is that which would be manifested if there were no mistakes; the cause of mistakes in the knowledge is obscuring karma ; owing to karma we make mistakes in perceiving, judging, etc.
Anything that takes place on account of the joint action of the soul and the karma is, from the ideal standpoint, the unnatural condition of the soul.
There was not any particular time in the past when this entity called the soul was without any karmas; because if we assume that there was, then it follows that after taking the trouble to remove the karmas through mental and moral disciplines, after going through a lot of ordeals, we might again come into combination with karmas. The fundamental basis of the philosophy is that, so far as the past is concerned, there was not any time when the soul was without any karma.
The combination of the soul and the karma is not a mechanical mixture, separable by simply taking apart as a coat from the body. The combination of the soul with karma is a subtle combination and can be seen thus : in a mechanical mixture the substances are only in juxtaposition, such as sugar and water, and you can seperate one from the other readily. Then there is chemical combination, when two or more
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