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ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES
incarnation. The sum-total of these tendencies is what is called character ; and this character contains in itself the well-digested and assimilated experience of the entire past of the soul. Now if we would analyse the idea of a tendency, we would not fail to observe that it is the modification of the mind in particular ways. Perhaps the word karmic body would be more appropriate here in place of the mind, since character, in the sense in which I have here employed that word, means only that body. The modification of such a body can only be affected in two ways, that is, either by the removal of some particles from, or the addition of some others to its composition. Hence, the Jaina Books teach that the karmic force is a kind of matter, the particles of which have become combined with the soul. This explains the nature of the force which prevents the soul from realizing its own blissful nature. I need not take up your time in entering into further details of the karmic matter, and may at once pass on to a consideration of the process which enables the soul to escape from the bondage of its past karmas.
From what has been already observed today, it is obvious that all that the soul has to do is to get rid of the particles of the karmapudgala (matter) which it has collected round itself. As soon as this is accomplished the soul is freed from all bondage and acquires perfect knowledge and bliss, which are the attributes of consciousness, which it (the soul) undoubtedly is.
how this is to be accomplished may now be explained. This eliminating process is called Yoga which is the science which enables the soul to shake off the bondage of karma, by the development of its own will. We have already said that karma acts by modifying our tendencies, that is, the desires, passions, emotions, etc., etc., and a careful analysis discloses the fact that every tendency is but an inclination in a particular direction, that is to say, a longing for a particular kind of enjoyment, or a desire for particular objects. Hence, the bondage of karma is really the bondage of desires. When the soul desires particular kinds of enjoyment, its karma body becomes obsessed with the subtle particles corresponding to the material of the objects of those desires. The force which attracts and keeps these particles round the soul, is the force of its own will. Hence, also, the
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