Tag Archives: mokṡ

Philosophy Quiz

Stages of Soul Purification

Stages of soul purification will be our focus of discussion today.

“But, I have a question related to the previous session“, interrupted Ātmā.

Go ahead.

Once on the pathway to mokṡ, can we track ourself as to where are we on the pathway? Are we on the right direction, or the opposite direction?

Right question at the right time. Yes, we can track. And the various stages of soul purification could be the guide for the same. As such, there would be infinite stages of soul purification because of infinite gradations in soul purity. However, broadly they can be classified into fourteen guṅasthān.

What is guṅasthān?

Stage of purification. Under each, there could be infinite varieties. But they are classified into one because of some common characteristics.

What is the basis of classification?

As such there are 5 doorways of karm accumulation (āshrav), which obstructs the pathway to mokṡ. Depending on the level and number of doors being closed, the progress / purification stage of the soul is determined on the pathway to mokṡ.

What are the five āshrav?

They are wrong faith (मिथ्यात्व), wrong conduct (अव्रत), neglect of right conduct (प्रमाद), kaṡāy (कषाय) (foursome of anger, ego, deceit, greed), activity (योग) (threesome by mind, speech, body).

O! So even activity accumulates karm?

Yes. In fact, that is the key one, which leads to karm accumulation. It is just the addition of kaṡāy or no kaṡāy alongwith, which decides the badness or goodness of the accumulated karm. So, when all the 5 doors are open, it is the stage one – mithyādriṡṫi guṅasthān. When the faith is shaky in an undecided state of right and wrong, the soul is in the stage three – mishra guṅasthān.

“What about the second stage?”, asked Guṅasthān.

Don’t worry. We’ll come to that. When the faith is completely right, the soul is at the fourth stage – avirati samyak driṡṫi guṅasthān. So, in all stages four and above, the first door of wrong faith is closed. If partial right conduct is added, the soul gets into the fifth stage – desh virati guṅasthān, and with complete right conduct, it is in the sixth stage – pramatt sanyat guṅasthān. From sixth and onwards, the second door of wrong conduct is closed, but the neglect may still happen. The stage where even that third door is closed, takes the soul to stage seven – apramatt sanyat guṅasthān. And from there onwards it is the diminishing foursome kaṡāy which keeps the soul moving upwards to stages eight (nivritti bādar guṅasthān) and nine (anivritti bādar guṅasthān).

What is the difference between the eight and ninth stage?

Eighth is with diminished kaṡāy. Ninth is with so further diminished kaṡāy, that towards the end of it, only the last one greed (of the foursome) is left, and then the soul enters the stage ten (sūkṡm sanprāy guṅasthān) with a very minute greed. The next stage would be with zero kaṡāy, where even the fourth door is closed. But here comes an interesting twist in the tale. The diminishing kaṡāy could be diminishing in two ways: 1) By elimination, 2) By suppression. If it was due to suppression, the soul enters stage eleven (upshānt moh guṅasthān) with zero kaṡāy due to complete suppression. Otherwise it enters stage twelve (kshīṅ moh guṅasthān) with zero kaṡāy due to complete elimination of its causing karm – the perception hindering aka deluding (mohaniya) karm – one of the eight karm types.

But isn’t the stage eleven a danger zone? How long would the kaṡāy remain suppressed?

Yes, very rightly pointed out. It is a danger zone, because the soul can’t stay longer here, as the suppressed kaṡāy would erupt again within 48 minutes, meaning the soul would fall back to the lower stages.

Which lower stage would it go to?

It may go to starting from tenth till back to the first stage.

That’s really bad.

And it is for this falling soul which is heading towards the stage one, there comes a pre-stage two (sāswādan samyak driṡṫi guṅasthān), where only the taste of right faith remains.

O! This is the missing stage two.

Yes. It is better than one but worse than three, as from it the soul would definitely go to stage one. From stage three, the soul would have gone to either four or one.

So, it is always better to skip stage eleven and jump to stage twelve from the stage ten.

Yes indeed.

But how do we know, whether we are heading towards eleventh or twelfth?

May not be perfectly with the current level of knowledge. But you may get a feel of it. Say you are being bothered by someone to trigger one of your kaṡāy, say anger. Now, whatever that someone does, you don’t get angry. That’s really great, your soul is getting into the better stages. But did you not get angry by letting it go forever, or by ignoring for the time being. That decides the pathway to twelfth vs eleventh stage, respectively.

Okay. Isn’t then getting to the twelfth stage near impossible? I guess all of us would go to eleventh and fall back.

Even if you keep falling back in this birth, you should keep trying – so that you would have enough practice to get to the twelfth stage at least in your later births. And once the soul is in the stage twelve, there is no returning back – mokṡ is for sure, in that life (birth) itself. From stage twelve, it would get rid of three more hindering karm types (knowledge hindering (jyānāvaraṅiya), vision hindering (darshanāvarṅiya), power hindering (antarāy)), leading it to attain the stage thirteen (sayogī kewalī guṅasthān) – the state with the infinite kewal knowledge.

“What I understand from our discussions is that mohaniya karm has to be the first karm type to be completely gotten rid of”, clarified Karm.

Yes. Absolutely correct. And if it is gotten rid of, others would any way go away. And that’s why it is called the king of karm among the eight karm types.

And then, while attaining the kewal knowledge, three more karm types are removed.

Yes.

So, does that mean even in stage thirteen, there are still four more karm types associated with the soul?

Absolutely. And in fact, it is because of these only, the soul is able to continue its physical aka worldly existence till before its mokṡ.

What are these four more karm types?

Pain / Pleasure causing (vedaniya), Age deciding (āyuṡ), Body deciding (nām), Status deciding (gotra). And as you see, they are non-hindering to any of the soul attributes of knowledge, vision, perception, power. Moreover, they are the basic ones needed to live in this world.

So, mokṡ can’t be attained unless these are also gotten rid of, right?

Yes. And that is where the soul has to stop all its activities, closing the fifth door, to enter the stage fourteen (ayogī kewalī guṅasthān). With all doors closed for karm particle entry, no new karm particle gets attracted towards the soul. And the above four karm types also get disassociated from the soul, leading it to mokṡ, beyond all stages of purification – the ultimate purification.

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Pathway to Moksh

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After going through the various aspects of the world and their inter-relations, especially the ones between the living and the non-living beings, and more in particular about the soul and the karm particles, we are all set to unravel the pathway to mokṡ – the complete purification of soul.

“But why do we even need to go to mokṡ?”, questioned Gati.

That’s a good question. In general, you don’t need to. You must have a strong reason for it, and then only you need to bother about its pathway.

But typically, what would that reason be?

It would be your want for the ultimate never ending bliss. Our life is always a roller-coaster ride with happiness and sadness interleaved. If you are enjoying that and whatever comes to you, you don’t need to bother about mokṡ. But if you are fed up of sadness, worries, … and want to get rid of it all permanently, mokṡ is the way to go. In that state, you are neither happy nor sad – you loose both and be in eternal bliss.

“So is mokṡ a place, or just a state of soul?”, asked Danḋak.

It is the purest state of soul without any karm particles. However, all such pure souls reside in a particular place in the universe named mokṡ-shila. So, more often than not, people colloquially refer to that place also as mokṡ.

I guess, we had already discussed as to how to attain mokṡ.

How was it?

Basically do good deeds without having AGED, i.e. Anger, Greed, Ego, Deceit.

Yes perfectly correct. But that’s easier said than done.

“Yes. Most of the times, the AGED don’t leave us. But why is it so? Does it mean we can’t go to mokṡ?”, asked Yog anxiously.

It is because it is just one part of the 4-step process to mokṡ.

Just one part. We thought that was all.

That *is* the key part to practise. But there are other supporting parts needed for that effective practice. And if one follows all the four parts in unison, it becomes a natural part of our life to get rid of AGED and attain mokṡ.

“What are the other parts?”, wanted Tatva.

First one is to have Right Faith (सम्यक दर्शन), i.e. to have faith in soul, karm, re-birth, mokṡ, etc, i.e. have faith in their existence. As if you don’t have faith in these, then you’d have no strong reason to get rid of AGED.

And with no strong enough reason, no effort becomes effective enough for its fructification.

Excellent, you philosopher. Second one is to have the Right Knowledge (सम्यक ज्ञान).

But once we have blind faith in something, what is there to know about it?

Don’t have blind faith. Just start with not denying the possibility. Then, explore to get more knowledge about it, which will naturally boost your belief. And then with better belief you’d rather crave for more knowledge about it.

Isn’t it sort of a cycle? Right Faith leads to getting Right Knowledge and vice-versa.

Yes it is. But the journey starts from having right faith and concludes when you have the infinite knowledge.

But what if, after getting more knowledge it disproves the belief rather than boosting it?

That is fine until and unless you are exploring with the sole goal / mindset of disproving it.

But many times we do that.

Yes, that’s where the right faith is required. Once you have that, you are open to further exploration, rather than just final conclusions. Don’t forget, knowledge is infinite, and we have too less of it, to conclude its disapproval.

Too less for its approval as well.

Exactly. That’s where we need to keep exploring without final conclusions. We need to keep exploring objectively with the mindset that what further am I missing to be able to prove it.

Got it – basically apply the principle of anekāntvād – have a multi-perspective view in exploration.

You are already a damn philosopher. Third part is the Right Conduct (सम्यक चारित्र). Once the first two are on the right track, applying the principles derived from there to our conduct in our day-to-day life is the right conduct. Once we start doing that getting rid of AGED will automatically fall in place.

“Any guidelines on the principles for Right Conduct?”, asked Mahāvrat.

Yes. Broadly, these can be put into 5 baskets called mahāvrat: 1) Non-violence – not killing or hurting, 2) Truthfulness – no lies in any form, 3) Non-stealing, 4) Brahmacharya – Celibacy & control over senses, 5) Non-possessiveness.

But aren’t they too difficult to follow?

Not easy for everyone to follow them completely. That’s where there are moderated versions of those called aṅuvrat, for day-to-day practices of common man. So, everyone can start with whatever minimal possible under each category, and they would naturally find themselves progressing towards more and more of it. In fact, the fourth part of the pathway to mokṡ is the one which boosts the inclination towards all these.

What is the fourth part?

It is Stoicistic Practices (तप). It is a collection of 12 various practices taking oneself towards upliftment of the soul.

“Can you tell us about them at least briefly?”, intervened Ātmā.

I’ll just list out the names. You may further study about them under the 7th topic nirjarā in chapter 14 of the book ‘Jīv Ajīv’ by Acharya Mahaprajna (in Hindi) – pdf pg 95 (A-86) & 96 (A-87).

Are nirjarā and tap same?

Yes. The twelve varieties of nirjarā / tap can be understood as: 1) Fasting (अनशन), 2) Eating Less than Hunger (ऊनोदरी), 3) Condition based Fast Breaking (भिक्षाचरी), 4) Not eating oil & milk products (रस-परित्याग), 5) Bearing body discomforts with patience (कायक्लेश), 6) Control on senses organs (प्रतिसंलीनता), 7) Repentance (प्रायश्चित), 8) Humility (विनय), 9) Service to Saints (वैयावृत्य), 10) Study for Right Knowledge (स्वाध्याय), 11) Meditation (ध्यान), 12) Leaving behind the passions of anger, greed, ego, deceit (व्युत्सर्ग).

Till now most of the times, we have been talking about the theoretical philosophy. Is there any practical application of it as well? Can I apply it to my life to attain mokṡ?

Definitely. In fact, all the four parts we discussed today are actually meant for practical applications only – otherwise there is no point of these discussions.

In that case, can we have some practical sessions on how to practise these?

They are already happening. Just go ahead and attend the practical hands-on rather soul-on workshop on Prekṡā Meditation to begin your journey towards mokṡ.

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Variety of Living Beings

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Did anyone of you got a chance to read the reference suggested in our previous class?

After a pause of silence.

Seems like none. Anyways, once you get a peek into it, I’d know it for sure, as you can’t but have a lot of questions to discuss here. So, after our first level of classification of non-living beings, let’s continue the same, now for living beings, beings having consciousness, beings having soul.

“Didn’t we already do it during our discussion of cycle of birth and death?”, questioned Dravya.

Yes, but that was just from one perspective. Now, we’d like to dive deeper and apply anekāntvād to see the multi-perspectives.

“And I believe, that didn’t even classify all the living beings, and currently we are classifying everything”, completed Rāshi.

Sort of yes. So, can you tell us the first level of classification of all living beings?

All living beings could be classified into two: the emancipated beings and the worldly beings.

Exactly. The beings who are now just pure souls, out of the cycle of birth and death. And the worldly beings who are still wandering through the four gati, taking birth and dying, leaving one form of body to enter an another body.

“Doesn’t the pure souls have any body?”, asked Leshyā.

No. They are just pure souls, with no non-living things attached to them.

Now, I have a fundamental doubt. I remember we discussing that once a soul reaches its pure form, then it can never get impure again, and that’s how mokṡ, the pure state, is permanent.

Yes, perfectly correct.

So, when the soul is leaving a body from one gati and going to another, wouldn’t there be even a momentary state, when it is pure, devoid of any body, any non-living thing? And if it is, then that would be its state of mokṡ, and so shouldn’t even further enter into any body. So, everyone should go to mokṡ, as soon as they die.

“Seems like a full proof argument, but just with a little flaw”, smiled the professor.

What’s that? Would there be no moments between the transition from one body to another?

No, there could be moments between the transition. But during those moments the soul is not pure, it has non-living particles attached around it.

O yes! I remember. You said the karm particles would be there always and they are non-living things.

Exactly. Now that can also be viewed from a different perspective. There are five kinds of bodies: oudārik, vaikriya, āhārak, tejas, kārmaṅ. And, any of these bodies can be had only by worldly souls. One or two of the first three types of bodies can be had by a worldly soul only when it is living in any gati. However, the last two bodies are always there with the worldly soul, even during the gati transition.

“This kārmaṅ body sounds very similar to karm”, commented Vrat.

Yes indeed. kārmaṅ is nothing but the body made of karm particles – our past impressions, attached closest to the soul. Just an another perspective of putting across the same concept.

“That explains, how our previous births could have impact on our current and future births, even after the body change”, added Leshyā.

And our current one on the future one as well, as our current actions are getting encrypted into our kārmaṅ body.

“What then is this tejas body?”, queried Vrat.

Tejas is the energy body attached next around the kārmaṅ body.

Hmmm! That possibly explains experimentalists claiming to have taken pictures of soul going out of a dying person, even though soul is non-observable.

Yes. The pictures would possibly be depicting the tejas body leaving along with the soul, not really the soul. Now, coming back to classification. The emancipated souls doesn’t need any further classification, as they all are just pure souls, and hence identical in their properties. So, all our further classification of living beings would refer only to the worldly living beings.

“So, can we say that gati was just a classification of worldly beings alone?”, clarified Dravya.

Yes. As emancipated souls are beyond gati. And just to complete the complete classification of worldly beings, we can add the fifth gati – antarāl gati, the worldly being form when it is under transition from death to birth.

What is a typical time interval of this antarāl gati?

1-4 samay, where samay is the smallest indivisible unit of time. Now, we would like to do an another classification of the worldly beings – based on the senses they possess.

“As we were discussing in one of our previous sessions, each of the four gati themselves have so many varieties. So, shouldn’t we just further sub-classify the four gati?”, interrupted Leshyā.

Yes we definitely would. And once we go in that direction, there is so much to explore into the unknowns that we would easily need at least one complete session for it. So, we’ll possibly do that in our next class. And before that, it would be great, if you all can skim through the book ‘Jīv Ajīv’ by Acharya Mahaprajna.

“‘Jīv Ajīv’ meaning living beings and non-living beings?”, clarified Mahāvrat.

Yes. It would give you a glimpse of what we have been discussing, and what we are going to discuss further. So, continuing with our last perspective of classification for today – the senses.

“Senses meaning the five senses of touch, taste, smell, light, sound, right?”, recalled Viṡay.

Right. And with that, you have already laid down the foundation for the senses-based classification of worldly living beings. Note that emancipated beings are anyways beyond these bodily senses, as they don’t need them anymore.

One I can think of is living beings with only the sense of touch, like plants.

Very good. It would also include water, earth, fire, air life forms. And from there, you can gradually move on to living beings with only two senses namely touch and taste, like snail, oyster, mites, etc

Then, living beings with only three senses. But which three senses? Is it any three senses?

That’s an interesting point. You’ll note that in nature, there’s a beautiful sequence. The senses develop exactly in that order. And hence, three-sensed beings would exactly have the sense of touch, taste, and smell, like in lice, ants.

So, four-sensed beings would additionally have the sense of light, like in cockroaches, lizards, etc.

Yes. And five-sensed beings will have all the five senses, like in humans, celestial beings, hellish beings, crocodiles, cows, horses, lions, elephants, snakes, rats, birds, …

But snakes don’t have ears?

We are not talking of (external) ears here, but sense of sound. Snakes do have that.

Are Celestial & Hellish beings also five-sensed?

Yes. Let’s dig deeper into those in our next session.

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Cycle of Birth and Death

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While discussing about knowing the knowledge, we concluded that soul is the beholder of knowledge, in fact complete knowledge, and also from time immemorial. Moreover, it would have it forever.

“Wouldn’t that mean existence of everyone’s soul also from time minus infinity to time plus infinity?”, questioned Jāti.

Yes, it does. And not only that, they have been even bound by karm particles from time immemorial.

So you mean, there was worldly existence of my soul before my birth, and would be there after my death, as well?

Yes Jāti, we all had a worldly existence before our *this* birth. In fact, we had already gone through infinite births and deaths. And that’s what our topic of discussion today – the cycle of birth and death.

So, would we have infinite births and deaths in the future also?

That depends. Going forward, if we get rid of all our karm particles and attain mokṡ, we come out of this painful cycle – no worldly existence – no rebirths, no deaths – just stay forever in mokṡ-shila. Otherwise, yes we would further keep going through this cycle of birth and death.

“Where is this mokṡ-shila?”, asked Ātmā curiously.

It is within this universe only, but at one of its ends.

O! So this universe have an end also.

Yes, the universe which contains matter, energy, soul, … is humongous but finite – and is referred to as lok (लोक). However, outside that, is alok (अलोक), which is infinite and has nothing in it and cannot have anything in it, except the empty space.

Can’t we go in alok?

No, nothing can be there, and so nothing can go there either.

How old are these lok and alok?

Again, like the soul, they were never created, they would never be destroyed. They have been there without any beginning (अनादि) and would be there forever without any end (अनंत).

How big is this finite lok?

I think, we are going off-topic for today. We would talk about lok in detail, some other day. So, we were talking about our existence before birth. In broad level, there are four gati (गति), so called forms through which soul can move through, while being in this world.

“How does the soul decide its gati?”, queried Danḋak.

It is decided by the karm particles, the soul has accumulated in its previous gati, by its puruṡārth (deeds).

Do you mean the karm particles keep moving around with the soul, through these gati?

Yes. Because if they don’t, the soul would attain its purest form and attain mokṡ, getting rid of moving through the various gati.

Ok. What do you exactly mean by gati?

These are the four forms or categories of worldly living beings, namely Celestial being (देव), Human being (मनुष्य), Tiriyanch being (तिरियंच), Hellish being (नारक).

So do these celestial and hellish kind of beings really exist? If yes, then why don’t we see them.

Yes, they very well do exist. We do not see them because their bodies are of different kind, which are not visible to our eyes. Moreover, they generally do not live here among us.

Where do they live? Heaven & Hell?

Sort of. Most of the celestial beings live in the various heavens (स्वर्ग) and all the hellish beings in the various hells (नरक). To be more precise, we’d need to understand the structure of lok.

Did you say heavens & hells? Are they not just one-one each?

No. There are 26 heavens & 7 hells.

And for sure, all of them are in this lok only, as there can’t be anything in alok?

Yes, exactly. We’ll talk more about their positions in our detailed discussion on lok.

What are these tiriyanch beings? I hope them to be the normal living beings, we see.

Yes, all the living beings except human beings, which biology talks about falls into this category.

So, the complete animal kingdom (except humans) & plant kingdom constitute the tiriyanch gati.

Animals, plants, and four more living beings.

“What else is left?!”, exclaimed Kāy.

Water (अपकाय), Earth (पृथ्वीकाय), Fire (तेजसकाय), Air (वायुकाय).

What?! Even they are living beings?!

Yes – they have souls residing in them, as well. In fact, one drop of water, one pinch of soil, a spark of fire, handful of air, each may contain innumerable number of souls.

You mean to say they may contain so many microbes.

No, not microbes – microbes would come under the biological animal or plant kingdom. Here, we are referring to living beings, whose body is water, earthly components (soil, minerals, …), fire, air, respectively.

That will take some time to digest.

No problem. Bose’ experiments had already shown signs of living beings from various minerals. In future, science will possibly verify others also.

Oh! Okay. I hope gati of human beings at least contains just we humans.

Human beings, yes. But not just we, there is at least one more variety, in there – though not getting in detail of that right now. With this, I hope you have got a bigger picture of the four gati, through which soul can travel.

“Each gati also seems to have further varieties. So, do all souls travel through all of them?”, asked Leshyā.

Not necessarily, as there are infinite tiriyanch, who would remain as tiriyanch. So, what all varieties, they would not even go through all gati. But highly likely that ours would have gone through at least all the four gati, if not all varieties.

Why do you say so for our souls?

When soul enters into a living form, we refer to it as its birth (in that life), and when it quits that living form, we refer to it as its death (in that life). But, the soul actually never dies. It just moves around from one living form to another. And every soul had already gone through such infinite births & deaths. And our soul is currently out of tiriyanch gati. So, with high probability, it would have gone through all the four gati, at least once.

“Even through tiriyanch?! Eeek! Animals, plants, water, earth, … whatever”, exclaimed Leshyā with an uneasy face & feeling.

Highly likely. That’s why, we in this human gati, should take maximum advantage to understand all these and try our best to get rid of all the karm particles, so as to avoid going into any further gati.

Meaning, even the life in heaven & hell is not permanent, the soul returns from there?

Yes, the only permanent thing is mokṡ – and that’s why the ultimate goal of life should be to settle in mokṡ.

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Theory of Karm

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“As discussed in our last class, karm (कर्म) particles are the impurities surrounding the soul, obstructing it to attain its state of complete knowledge. But what are these karm particles? Are they living or non-living? Do they decide the fate of soul? Can they ever be eliminated from the soul? If yes, how? Why in the first place are they surrounding the soul? I am sure you have one or more such queries bothering you”, jolted the professor.

“Yes”, came a chorus.

These and many more questions around karm are what are dealt in the theory of karm.

“So finally, are we going to learn how to attain the complete knowledge by eliminating the karm particles?”, asked Jāti.

Dear Jāti, it is a continual learning process, not just a pill to eliminate all karm particles. So, knowing the theory of karm is just the beginning into the process.

Great! at least we’ll begin today.

Karm particles are one of the tiniest granules of matter, and as such they are non-living.

“How does the living soul accumulate the non-living karm?”, asked Upyog.

If it is a pure living soul, it in fact cannot accumulate non-living karm, and that state of soul is what is called nirvāṅ (निर्वाण) or mokṡ (मोक्ष), from which it never comes out. However, the worldly soul is already surrounded by karm and these karm leads to accumulating more karm – it is a vicious cycle.

“If it is a vicious cycle, would soul ever be able to come out of it”, asked Yog.

Good question. If left on its own, the karm wouldn’t allow soul to attain nirvāṅ. However, soul has the ability of doing puruṡārth (पुरुषार्थ), i.e. “putting effort” to break the vicious cycle.

What kind of effort?

Effort to stop the inflow of karm, and effort to remove the existing karm.

How to do the effort?

For that, let’s first understand the process of inflow & accumulation. Any of our mental, vocal, or physical activity brings in the karm. So, stopping or reducing them, stops or reduces the inflow, e.g. taking vows to reduce our activities – the most common & profound activity being eating.

Is that why so many soul centred philosophies are centred around food restrictions?

Sort of – more precisely food control and management, as food is one major activity driver for all living beings.

So, does it directly relate fasting to removal of karm particles?

Yes, it does – just that it should be done with that intention alone – otherwise it may not be that effective.

“Intentions? Do they have any role?”, asked surprised Karm.

In fact, they are the ones having the major role, as intentions trigger thoughts, and thoughts drive the appropriate effort.

Isn’t putting effort an action in itself?

Putting effort to remove karm is an action indeed.

Then, wouldn’t it further accumulate more karm?

It would, but accumulate only good karm particles, eliminating the bad ones.

“Does it mean, it is good to have good karm particles?”, quizzed Yog.

Not really, as even they would obstruct the soul from reaching its pure form. But once all the bad ones are gone, the good ones cannot stay for long – they would eventually go off. And a thing to understand is that more important than the accumulation of karm particles is the strength with which they are bonded with. As it is almost inevitable to reach zero activity, so karm particles would keep on accumulating, till almost our soul gets into pure form. But, if they are accumulated with the least possible bonding strength, they could all be cleared very easily, in lesser go’s.

And how do we control the bonding strength?

The bonding strength depends on the level of kaṡāy during the bonding.

“What is this kaṡāy?”, asked Guṅasthān.

It is the glue for karm particles. The foursome of Anger, Greed, Ego, Deceit is collectively termed as kaṡāy. So, having the less of these in our character, enables easy removal of our karm. One may remember them as the acronym AGED. I hope all of you understand these four emotions.

I believe anger is best understood but least worked upon. Greed is want of something more than one’s need, even at cost of others. Ego is the “only me” thought. Deceit is cheating.

More or less correct. And with that I believe you understand why various philosophies talk about being simple, devoid of anger, greed, ego, deceit.

You mean being devoid of AGED paves the path towards complete knowledge.

Yes. Shed anger, be peaceful. Shed greed, be satisfied. Shed ego, be accommodative. Shed deceit, be straightforward. And head towards achieving complete knowledge, and henceforth the state of pure soul.

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