Here are excerpt from various texts on Threefold Impurity (Mala मल)
Now there is another great secret to be known. The Soul, being made of Spirit, nay, being the Supreme Spirit Itself and Identical with Me, is eternally happy, all-wise and free. Yet as he descends at My Divine Command into this Material World, as he must in order to participate in My Creation, he passes through the dark veil of Maya, My Cosmic Magic. In the course of his descent, he becomes tainted by the Threefold Impurity called Mala. (165)
Anava Mala, the Impurity of Imperfection, is the first product of Maya. Thereby, as in a dream, the Soul though being Identical with Shiva deems himself and everything else to be limited and imperfect. Impelled by this impurity, he desires limited and imperfect things. O you who are endowed with Wisdom! know this to be the seed of worldly existence. (166)
The second, Maiya Mala, is the Impurity of Delusion that develops from the first even as a plant sprouts forth from a seed. It causes the Self to see all things as different and separate both from each other and itself. (167)
Karma Mala, the third, is the Impurity of Limited Action. Growing from the previous two, it is their fruit, as it were. Having been rendered imperfect and endowed with limited knowledge, the Soul acts in limited and imperfect ways. Having performed such action, the latent seed thereof comes alive in due course, binding him to this world and its endless cycle of death and rebirth. Thus the Soul is forced to enjoy the fruit of his imperfect actions, both bad and good. (168)
– Shri Shiva Rahasya, Ch. 10
Mala: This literally means dross, taint or impurity. Mala is what covers and conceals the pure gold of divine consciousness. It is a limiting condition which hampers the free expression of the spirit. It is of three forms, anava mala, mayiya mala and karma mala.
Anava mala: It is the primal limiting condition which reduces the universal consciousness to that of an empirical being. It is a cosmic limiting condition over which the individual has no control. It is owing to this that the jiva or individual soul considers itself apurna or imperfect, a separate entity cut off from the universal consciousness. The greatness of Siva in this condition is concealed, and the individual gets his real nature. The anava mala is brought about in two ways. There may be bodha or knowledge, but the perfect I-consciousness whose nature is freedom of all cognition and activity may be missing (as in Vijnanakala) or there may be l-consciousness with abodha or ignorance (as in common folk).
Mayiya mala is the limiting condition brought about by Maya that gives to the soul its gross and subtle body. It is also cosmic. It is bhinna-vedya-pratha - that which brings about the consciousness of difference owing to the differing limiting adjuncts of the bodies.
Karma mala. It is the vasanas or impressions of actions done by the jnanendriyas and Karmendriyas under the influence of antah-karana. It is a limiting condition brought about by the individual by his karma and its vasanas.
– Notes by Jaideva Singh, Sutra 1.1, Siva Sutras - The Yoga of Supreme Identity
Āṇava mala is the subtle maculation, or innate ignorance, that reduces the universal consciousness to the rank of empirical experiencer who does not recognize his own nature as identical to it; it is the cause of ignorance and causes the birth of transmigration.
Māyīya mala is the maculation due to māyā, the power of illusion, that gives the soul its gross and subtle body and the reason why the individual soul perceives diversity everywhere.
Kārmika mala is the maculation due to the karman, because of which the individual acts driven by his own personal desires to achieve his own personal ends. Because of these three maculations the individual is devoid of energy, he is, as Kṣemarāja says, śaktidaridra, that is he has lost the perfect powers of action and knowledge and is subject to transmigration: the universal Consciousness (Cit) has assumed the aspect of jīva, the limited soul.
– Excerpt from Vivaraṇa, Verse 3, Bhāvopahāra of Cakrapāṇinātha with the Vivaraṇaof Ramyadevabhaṭṭa, tr. E. Garzilli
If man is really divine, why is he so imperfect and stands in need of the power of the inner Self?
The divine plan of evolution contains two movements. There is first of all gradual descent of the Self in inconscient matter. Two things happen in this process of descent. The empirical being forgets his essential divine nature. This is āṇava mala.
Secondly, he gets confined to subtle and gross bodies. This is māyiya mala. As he is engaged in all sorts of good and bad acts, these leave behind their impressions in his mind which act as a strong force dragging him down to material existence of further experiences. This is Kārma mala.
These limiting conditions are called aśuddhi (impurity, limitation).
It is only at the human level that ascent to the divine status can start. The main obstacle in his ascent is his pseudo-self that arrogates to itself the status of the main actor in the drama. This pseudo-self has been called ksobha in the verse, for it is this that is responsible for all the fret and fever of life. When this is dissolved, then Self-forgetfulness is replaced by Self-recollection and man’s evolution is complete.
– Spanda-Kārikās The Divine Creative Pulsation (1.9), Exposition
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