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CHAPTER TWO
Among these the beings born by way of sudden manifestation and the beings destined to live for asānkhyāta years are possessed of a life-quantum not open to time-reduction and not characterized by upakrama; on the other hand, the beings possessing a body for the last time and the highly noble personages are possessed of a life-quantum not open to timereduction but either characterized or not characterized by upakrama. Leaving aside these, all the remaining human beings and animals are possessed of a life-quantum open to timereduction.
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Question: If life-quantum is enjoyed away before its due period is over then there would arise the contingencies of a loss of the done, an attainment of the undone, futility, contingencies which the scriptural texts as undesirable. How are these contingencies to be evaded ?
Answer: The above difficulty does not arise in the case of a sudden enjoying away of life-quantum. For the same karma which was to be enjoyed taking a long time is now enjoyed all at once; but no part of it is left without its consequence being experienced. Hence here there is involved neither a loss of the karma that was earned nor its futility. Similarly, what occurs here is death arising owing to a karma that was earned; hence here there is involved no attainment of the consequence of a karma that was not earned. All this is just as a spark of fire dropped on one side of a tightly bound mass of hay manages to burn down this entire mass blade by blade and taking a long time while a number of such sparks dropped on all sides of a loose and scattered mass of hay burn down the entire mass all at once.
In order to elucidate this very idea the theoretical texts offer two more illustrations, one pertaining to an arithmetical operation, the other pertaining to the act of drying piece of cloth. Thus if we are to find out the least common multiple of a particular set of numbers there are a number of ways for doing so suggested by the science of arithmetic. Now one highly expert in arithmetic employs such a method in this connection as yields
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