Dr. N.L. Kachhara
There are two types of karma: bhava karma and dravya karma. As described in Chapter 1, bhava karma is the impurity of the soul or impure consciousness and is non-physical. Bhava karma constitutes ignorance, feelings of attachment and aversion, wrong faith, etc. in the mundane soul. Bhava karmas are present on every pradesa of the soul. These karmas are the impressions of the actions of the soul and exist as some kind of virtual structure in the soul. The impression is the memory of the action, so the soul knows all of the actions performed by him in the past and in all previous lives. The information stored in this memory relates to worldly activities and is therefore a hindrance to self-realization. This is why it is called an impurity that hides the real nature of the soul. Bhava karmas are the cause of future modes of the soul.
Bhava karmas have a physical counterpart, dravya karma, which is comprised of subtle matter called karman vargana. The dravya karmas form a body known as karman or karma body. Thus, dravya karmas are the physical records of the past activities of the soul. There is a perfect balance and equilibrium between bhava and dravya karmas. This balance is dynamic in the sense that a change in one automatically initiates a corresponding change in the other, satisfying the principle of parallelism between the bhava and dravya karma. It is because of dravya karma that the non-physical soul is able to perform physical acts. If all dravya karmas were removed by some process (which would also mean the elimination of all soul impurities) the soul would be rendered incapable of performing any physical act. A mundane soul necessarily has to be impure, and these impurities impose limits on the manifestation of the natural powers of the soul. The greater the impurities, i.e. the greater the number of karmas, the lesser amount of power of the soul is manifested. We are all imperfect souls, and our imperfection is a direct function of the amount of our karma.
