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SANNYASA DHARMA
prepared, but determines to control his disposition and inner feelings both. The former is altered by the acquisition of Right Faith and illumined with the light of Right Knowledge, and the latter is controlled by the rules constituting Right Conduct. Hence, where Right Faith is acquired too late, that is to say after the type of the gati has been fixed for the future rebirth, it is powerless to replace it in that very life, though, short of this, it will do much to modify, for the better, the nature of the conditions of existence within it. This is because the stamp of disposition once firmly impressed on the kärmāna sarira (an invisible inner body which is the repository of character) is indelible for that life, though capable of modification by subsequent deeds to a very great extent. Thus, if a person has already incurred the liability to be reborn in the tiryancha gati that embraces all forms of the mineral, the vegetable and the animal kingdoms, and includes even the lowest and therefore the most undesirable form of life, known as nigoda, no subsequent change of beliefs, on his part, in that particular incarnation, can cancel the liability that has been incurred, though the tinge of his prevailing convictions and thoughts at the last moment of life may be such as to lead him to be reborn amongst the best forms of existence within its range. Similarly, if a person has engendered the harma for a rebirth in hell, it is possible for him by his subsequent good actions and right beliefs to reincarnate in the best of the conditions that are avail
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