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THE SYSTEMS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
rebirth; that is, the soul is born in some other body, and the birth does not imply the same conditions [as those] applying to the human birth. There are certain conditions in which human beings are born; the seed itself takes several months to ripen and then there is the birth. This may be due to certain acts or forces which are generated by human beings?. These are in a condition to be observed by beings whose forces will take them to some other planet, and we say that there is another condition of birth there. There is no necessity for gestation and fecundation. The karmic body has in itself many powers and has a force to take to itself another body, which is in the case of the human beings a gross body, but in the case of other beings a subtle body is generated and this body is changeable so far as its form and dimensions are concerned. Therefore, if the forces generated while we live any kind of life are of different kinds then in the case of some being it may be necessary that he should be born in the human condition and pass through the actual conditions which must be obeyed if the human being is to be born, while if the forces generated are different in their character he may be born on some other planet where birth is manifested in a different way, without any necessity of the combination of the male and the female principle. There are so many different planes of life that the mere study of the human life ought not to be made to apply to all the affairs of life. We have studied only a few forms of the life of animals, human beings, etc., but that is only the part which under the present development of our science, of our eyesight 6. This sentence needs some correction of the type here
suggested. 7. Here the phrase 'generated by human beings' means
generated by those karmic bodies which are going to take to themselves a human body'. This becomes clear from the immediately forthcoming part of Gandhi's argument.
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