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ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES
embrace and enjoy. It follows from this that the fusion of spirit and matter cannot take place unless the soul be first thrown into an attitude of desire, signifying its readiness to receive and embrace the intruders from without, who readily combine with it. This gives us what may be termed the second law of interaction between spirit and matter, which may be formulated in the following terms: the fusion of spirit and matter cannot take place, except when the soul is thrown into a condition of expectancy, i.e., agitation.
The fusion of spirit and matter, as already stated, is always fraught with evil consequences for the soul, and prevents its natural properties from manifesting themselves. In union with matter, the soul resembles a pond fed by three channels (to correspond to the three sources of asrava, namely, the mind, speech and the body), in which changes constantly occur in consequence of the influx and evaporation of water, for while fresh asrava of matter is constantly taking place on the one hand, the old material is being consumed in the natural course on the other. This is due to the fact that no compounds are absolutely eternal in nature, so that wherever there is a combination of two or more things, they must fall apart in due course of time, owing to the operation of physical laws.
We may now proceed to a consideration of the fourth tattva, that is, bandha. It will be evident to all thinking minds with reference to this tattva, that while the fusion of substances is restrictive of their natural function, new properties are brought into being by virtue of their union. This holds good also in the case of the companionship of spirit and matter. Of the eight kinds of the karmic forces already described, the ghātiya karmas mark the limits imposed by the association of matter on the soul-substance, while the aghatiya ones are the offspring of a soul impregnated by the element of the otherthan-itself. The aghatiya karmas comprise all those divers energies which are responsible for the making of the different kinds of bodies. and bodily limbs and those that regulate the experiences of pleasure and pain, as well as those that determine the term, or duration, of the lease of life and the status of the individual in his tribe and class. All these forces reside in what is technically known as the karmāna sarira (literally, the body of karmas), which is a compound of
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