70. SAIVA BASIS OF ABHINAVA'S ÆSTHETICS 77

SAIVA BASIS OF ABHINAVA'S ÆSTHETICS 77

nature. For, words stand for definite ideas, but it is indefinite, not in the sense that it is shadowy nothing or nihility but that language cannot adequately present it. The western mystics also such as Plotinus, talk of the Highest Reality in the same tone, as we shall show in the fourth Chapter of the Second Volume. This Reality can be realised through spiritual discipline only, which leads the follower of the mystic path through regular stages to the final goal. The discipline is meant for freeing the individual soul from various impurities, which attach to it and constitute the limiting conditions, which alone differentiate the individual soul from the Absolute.

THE IMPURITIES OF THE SOUL. There are three impurities, which attach to soul and constitute its bondage. 1. Innate ignorance (Anavamala). It conceals the real · nature of soul. It consists in the loss of universality and consequent forgetfulness of its true nature. It is mere conciousness of supposed imperfection. It is beginningless, though destructible. 2. Indefinite desire (Kārmamala). The former, the impurity of innate ignorance, is the condition of indefinite and limitless desire. Perfect soul, for which nothing apart from or outside it exists, can have no desire. For, desire has objective reference and, therefore, presupposes some imperfection and limitation in the desiring subject. Karmamala, therefore, is potential desire, which, as such, has no definite object, but, when it actualises, is responsible for countless associations of the self with creations of Maya. It is distinct from Karma Samskara, which is nothing but