nervous system from head to foot, through every canal, which keeps the
shape of the body, preserves it from putrefaction, and gives health
and life to every cell and organ. These are the various manifestations
of the vital force or _Prana_. These subtle powers together with
the non-composite elements of the gross body, or the ethereal
particles of subtle matter, and also with the potentialities of all
the impressions, ideas and tendencies which each individual gathers in
one life, make up his subtle body. As a resultant of all the
different actions of mind and body which an individual performs in his
present life, will be the tendencies and desires in his future life;
nothing will be lost.

Every action of body or mind which we do, every thought which we
think, becomes fine, and is stored up in the form of a _Samskara_
or impression in our minds. It remains latent for some time, and then
it rises up in the form of a mental wave and produces new
desires. These desires are called in Vedanta, _Vasanas_. Vasanas
or strong desires are the manufacturers of new bodies. If Vasana or
longing for worldly pleasures and objects remains in anybody, even
after hundreds of births, that person will be born again. Nothing can
prevent the course of strong desires. Desires must be fulfilled sooner
or later.

Every voluntary or involuntary action of the body, sense or mind must
correspond to the dormant impressions stored up in the subtle
body. Although growth, the process of nourishment and all the changes
of the gross physical body take place according to the necessarily
acting causes, yet the whole series of actions, and consequently every
individual act, the condition of the body which accomplishes it, nay,
the whole process in and through which the body exists, are nothing