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A Treatise on Jainism
95
nation with fine molecules of fine Karmic matter, which obscure their inherent attributes such as Omniscience, Peace and Beatitude. It is this Karmic combination, which is the inducing cause for attracting fresh Karmic matter to the Soul, and keeping up the state of contamination. There is a limit to the period for which Karmic matter can remain combined and bound up with a Soul, but before the expiry of that period, the activities of body, mind and speech, and the passions and emotions, generated by the Karmic molecules already in contact, create a condition which attracts other Karmic molecules for bondage with the Soul, and thus the process of falling off of old, and the bondage of fresh Karmas goes on and on. The Karmas are ever changing in their intensity, duration, kind and quantity. The stoppage of this process of bondage and the elimination of all Karmas can be attained by effort, of which the ultimate result is Nirvana, Emancipation, Liberation from the Karmas. The ultimate object of human existence is to attain perfect purity of Soul, its condition of inherent perfection. The obstacle
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