Theory Of Rebirth
Man can be compared to a plant. He grows and flourishes like a plant and dies in the end but not completely. The plant also grows and flourishes and dies in the end. It leaves behind it the seed which produces a new plant. Man leaves when dying his Karma behind–the good or bad actions of his life. The physical body may die and disintegrate, but the impressions of his actions do not die. He has to take birth again to enjoy the fruits of these actions. No life can be the first, for it is the fruits of previous actions, nor the last, for its actions must be expiated in the next life following. Therefore, Samsara or phenomenal existence is without beginning and an end. But there is no Samsara for a Jivanmukta or liberated sage who is resting in his own Sat-Chit-Ananda Svarupa.
When a man dies he carries with him the permanent Linga Sarira, which is made up of five Jnana Indriyas, five karma Indriyas, five Pranas, Manas (mind), Buddhi, Chitta and Ahamkara and the changing Karmasraya (receptacle of works), the actions of the soul, which determines the formation of the next life.
Sri Jnana Dev, the reputed Yogi of Alandi, wrote his commentary on the Gita, Jnanesvari, when he was only sixteen years old. He was a born Siddha. You can also become a Siddha if you try in right earnest. What one has attained can be achieved by another also.
If a new-born child who has not done any wrong action in this birth undergoes great suffering, this is the fruit of some evil deed done in the previous birth. If you ask, how the person was induced to do a wrong action in this former birth, the answer is that it was the result of some wrong action done in a birth still anterior and so on.
Many intelligent fathers have sons with dull intellect. If a shepherd boy gave you some food and water in your previous birth when you were dying of starvation, he will be born in this birth as your son, with a dull intellect to enjoy your property.
When creatures are born, they evince a desire to suck the breast and show an instinct of terror. Therefore it follows that they remember the sucking of the breast and the pains experienced in the previous birth. This shows that there is rebirth.
Even a child exhibits Harsha (exhilaration), Soka (grief), fear, anger, pleasure and pain. The Dharma-adharma Samskaras of this birth cannot be the cause of these. The Samskaras of the previous birth must have a support (Asraya). From this we can clearly infer the existence of Jiva in the previous birth, and the Jiva is Anadi, or beginning-less. If you do not accept that the Jiva is Anadi, the two defects, viz., Kritanasa and Akritabhyagama will creep in. Pleasure and pain which are the fruits of virtuous and vicious actions done previously will pass away without being enjoyed. This is Kritanasa (loss of merited reward). So also, one will have to enjoy the pleasure and pain, the fruits of good and evil actions, which were not done by him previously. This is Akritabhyagama (receiving unmerited reward). In order to get rid of these two defects, we will have to accept that the Jiva is Anadi or beginningless. Else, life would be unaccountable.
Some Yogic students ask me: "How long should one practise Sirshasana or Paschimottanasana or Kumbhaka or Mahamudra, to awaken Kundalini? Nothing is mentioned on this point in any book on Yoga". A student starts his Sadhana from the point or stage he left in his previous birth. That is the reason why Lord Krishna says to Arjuna: "Or he may be born in a family of wise Yogins. There he recovereth the characteristics belonging to his former body and with these he again laboureth for perfection, O Joy of the Kurus" (Ch. VI: 42, 43). It all depends upon the degree of purity, stage of evolution, the degree of purification of Nadis and the Pranayama Kosa, degree of Vairagya and yearning for liberation.
Some are born with purity and other requisites of realisation on account of their having undergone the necessary discipline in their past life. They are born Siddhas. Guru Nanak, Jnana Dev, Vama Deva, Ashtavakra were all adepts from their very boyhood. Guru Nanak asked his teacher in the school when he was a boy, about the significance of OM. Vama Deva delivered a lecture on Vedanta when he was dwelling in his mother's womb.
Man does actions with the expectation of getting fruits and so he takes a birth to enjoy the fruits of his actions. In the next birth, he does some more actions and he has to take another birth. In this manner the Samsaric wheel is revolving from eternity to eternity. When one gets knowledge of the Self, he is liberated from this round of births and deaths. Karma is beginningless and Samsara also is beginningless. When a man does actions without expectation of fruits in selfless spirit, all the fetters of Karma get loosened gradually.
Die to live. Kill this little 'I' and attain immortality. Live in Brahman. You will live for ever. Possess Atman. You will have eternal life. Identify yourself with your soul. You will cross the ocean of death or Samsara. Rest in your Satchidananda Svarupa. You will have everlasting life.
A leech moves on a blade of grass and reaches the end of the blade. It first catches hold of another blade with the forepart of its body and then draws its hindpart on to it. Even so, the Jivatman (individual soul) abandons the present body at the time of death, fashions the future body by his thought and then enters into that body.
A good or bad deed always brings its good or bad fruits. You will find in Mahabharata: "Just as a calf finds out its mother among a thousand cows, so also an action that was performed in a previous birth follows the doer."
Yadrisam kriyate karma tadrisam bhujyate phalam,
Yadrisam vapyate, bijam tadrisam prapyate phalam.
Just as the fruit corresponds to the seed that has been sown, so also the fruit of the actions that are performed by us correspond to the nature of the actions that we perform. This is an infallible law of nature. He who has sown the seed of a mango tree cannot expect a jack fruit. He who has done evil actions throughout his life cannot expect happiness, peace and prosperity in his next life.
"Many are the times we have been together in the past, and also been separated and so again shall it be in the future. Even as a heap of grain removed from granary to granary ever assumes new order of arrangement and new combination, so is the case with Jiva (human being) in the universe through his arrangement" (Yoga Vasishtha).
Reincarnation Is Quite True (ii)
Kamlesh Kumari Devi, alias Gita Murti, commenced preaching the Gita at the age of two and a half years. She was born on Tuesday, the 12th of December, 1939. The ideas of the transmigration of soul and eternity of life, although recorded in our holy scriptures, are dormant and latent in our practical life.
She used to sit in the lap of her father and pronounce the Slokas of the Gita in her broken language. She used to glance at the Gita as well. At the age of two and a half years her father, Pundit Devi Dutt Sarma, took her to the garden outside Lohgarh Gate, Amritsar, where Swami Krishnananda was holding discourses on the Gita. The Swami narrated the story of an eight-year-old girl at Allahabad who could recite the verses of the Gita beautifully. On hearing this, Kamlesh Kumari felt excited and forced the Swami and audience to hear her lecture on the Gita. She delivered her first lecture and deeply impressed the audience.
Swami Krishnananda presented to her some Hindi books: Hindu Dharma, Parshisht, etc., which she fluently read to the astonishment of the Swami. After that she delivered lectures at Haridwar, Rishikesh, Ludhiana, Jandiala Guru, Har Sahai Mandi, Mukherian, Dharma Kot, Gujranwala and other places.
The other girl, Mahindra Kumari, alias Chand Rani, three and a half years old, died in Tango, Burma on 15 Oct. 1939 and was reborn in Amritsar in May 1940. At the age of three and a quarter years she forced her present mother to go to the house of her previous parents. The girl went on insisting again and again, and importuned her mother every day to accompany her to visit her real house and real 'Jahai'. It is rightly said that persistence prevails and is proved true in this case. At last the mother yielded, the baby led, and the mother followed her, to an unknown destination. The baby girl took her mother from Mushkal Mohalla passing through the various streets and blind corners, brought her mother to Kucha Beriwala at the end of the street, before a house which she claimed as her own. When her previous life's brother's wife came from an adjoining house, on hearing the knocks and shouts at her door, the baby girl recognised her Jahai, and ferociously embraced her by clinging to her legs, and subsequently recognised her 20 year old son Siva, and other relatives and her belongings. She recognised her gold Mutter Mala, and photo of her dead body, saying that it was she who was sleeping. At the time of her death she had great desire (Vasana) to see her brother S. Sunder Singh, and his wife, who were not present at the time of her death and perhaps the deep-rooted Vasana at the time of leaving her body in Burma, led her to be reborn in Amritsar, to meet her brother and his wife.
Jain boy of Baroda (Statesman 5 Sep. 1937): In Baroda a Jain boy of six years surprised his mother by relating the incidents of his former life. He said that he was previously at Poona of parents who belonged to Patna. He was known as Kevalchand and later ran a drapery shop at Poona. He had business relations with several merchants at Patna. He had 6 sons, one of whom was named Ramanlal. All these were verified when the boy and his mother visited Patna.
The doctrine of reincarnation is supported by Guru Nanak Dev in Guru Granth Sahib as well as by the great philosophers of Greece such as Socrates and Plato who lived about 2400 years ago.
"All our knowledge is a remembrance of what we have known only before we are born"–Platonic doctrine of reminiscence.
"We must have received our knowledge of all realities, before we were born. Our souls existed formerly apart from our bodies and possessed intelligence before they came into man's shape"–Philosophy of Socrates.
Bereft of the living self, this body dies, while the living self dies not; because we find that when a man has fallen asleep leaving some work unfinished, when he wakes up, he remembers that he had left the work unfinished; and also just because creatures are born, they immediately evince a desire to suck the breast, terror, etc., it follows therefore, that they remember the sucking of the breast, and the pains experienced in the previous birth.
Reincarnation In Lower Births
Ordinarily in most cases the soul is not willing to take birth in the lower Yonis (wombs) for the salient reason that it has done good works in the physical body as a human being in the past incarnation. No human being is out and out an incarnation of Lucifer. Certain good qualities and actions prompted by such good qualities always outweigh the bad qualities and their actions and the human being steps into another birth either low or high out of the same species for the future evolution of the soul.
The instances where the human soul should take a lower birth either as a wolf or as a pig may be very few, just as in the physical world, a murderer awaits his exit only through the doors of the gallows. At the same time we cannot deny the truth of the scriptural texts, considering the law that every cause produces its corresponding effect.
The future birth of each soul is the result of its past actions, and the theory of Karma and reincarnation plays an important part in determining the same. The law of cause and effect, action and reaction, holds good in the case of Karma also.
Generally man evolves upwards. The tendency of the evolution is to take a man to a high level or status. This is the natural biological law. But there are exceptions. If a man is endowed with devilish traits or Asuric tendencies and does highly brutal acts, if he behaves worse than an animal, if he acts like a dog or a donkey or monkey, he surely does not deserve a human birth in the next life. He will take birth in the womb of animals. He will be born as a dog or a monkey or a donkey. Such cases are, however, rare indeed.
If a man does very heinous sins, he can get the maximum punishment while dwelling in this very physical body. In such extreme cases it is not necessary that he should wait to take the birth of an animal. Man suffers more for his sins while remaining in the body of a man than taking an animal birth. The sufferings of a leper, or a consumptive, a person suffering from syphilis, gonorrhoea are beyond description.
The inexorable working of this law is brought out tellingly in the very unusual and extremely interesting case cited hereunder.
Tarak, aged 18 or 19, compounder of Kaviraj Mahendranath Sen of Benda, got intense colic which drove him unconscious. A Brahmin of Sarvavidya lineage touched with pity, put vermilion on Tarak's forehead, uttering Mantras and praying to Mother Kali, to let him know why Tarak was suffering so badly.
Tarak roared in his unconsciousness, "I am a part of Mother Kali. Shall I not punish Tarak? In a past life he insulted his mother and his mother kicked her own husband, Tarak's father. Both have been condemned to suffer for 7 births, Tarak from this terrible colic and his mother to become a widow only fourteen days after marriage. They have had 4 births already, and 3 more to suffer."
"Is there no means of deliverance, Mother" asked the kind Brahmin.
Tarak, still unconscious, replied: "There can be no deliverance unless Tarak takes 'Padodak' (the water with which feet are washed) of his mother and also 'Uchhishta' (the leaving of her food), and if his mother gives him medicine, he may be cured in this life". On enquiring where Tarak's mother was, the unconscious Tarak replied: "Gopal Sen's widow is Tarak's mother".
Tarak came to his senses, heard everything from the Brahmin and obeyed the mandate. Tarak's mother gave him a portion of a 'Pan' (betel leaf) which Tarak wore in a 'Maduli'. Tarak was cured straightaway.
Next year the same disease returned but Tarak was cured when Tarak's mother sprinkled her 'Padodak'. It was then found that Tarak's 'Maduli' has been defiled by taking water from a lady in her menses.
Man learns lessons through bitter and painful experiences in this world. However sinful, cruel and brutal a man may be, he corrects and educates himself through sufferings, pains, sorrows, troubles and difficulties and diseases, loss of property, poverty and death of dear and near relations. God moulds and corrects the sinners in a mysterious manner. Sufferings and pain act as useful educative forces. They serve as eye-openers in the case of evil-doers. They check them from falling back and pull them upwards. They begin to do good actions and seek the company of the saints.
Some say that a man can never reincarnate in an animal body, as his individuality cannot be conveniently accommodated by the insufficient and incapable body of an animal. The higher principles of man can find no receptacle and expression in the rude, rough and imperfect habitation of the animal. The body of a creature is always an encrustation, as it were, of its inner bodies which, too, are similarly of the same shape and cast. Thus, the encrustation or body of a human soul should always be human. It should correspond to the necessities, requirements and ambitions of a human soul. It should be furnished with all the instruments of perception and conception, which a human soul stands in need of. It should, in short, be cast upon the mould and matrix of the causal and astral bodies which generally form the plan and design of a human body. Thus a human body cannot but incarnate in a human body. The sayings of ancient writers that a cruel person will become a wolf, an avaricious person a cobra, a lustful person a bitch, etc. are all metaphorical statements. When they say that a cruel person will reincarnate as a wolf, they mean thereby that he will be reborn as a ferocious and voracious man like a wolf and similarly do other statements mean.
Others hold the view that a man may try to fall back, nay, may do his best to live the life of a lower animal. He may try to push out of his mind all higher and finer feelings, and if he really succeeds in making a monkey of himself, if he succeeds in making his desires nothing but animal desires, and if he makes an animal of himself, then, of course, he will be born a monkey in the next incarnation. But man cannot do that. There are other forces which prevent and keep him back. Those forces are what are called sorrow, trouble, suffering etc. They are the guaranteed agencies against any falling back. These forces will not allow man to fall down; thus, progress is secured. Life of evolution is progress and progress must be made, and thus constant and continuous warfare is necessary. This is another view of others.
A human birth is the result of mixed Karmas, viz., good and bad. When good Karmas outweigh the bad, man gets the birth of a Deva, Yaksha, Gandharva, and the like. When evil Karmas outweigh the good, he takes birth as an animal, devil, etc. He falls into a lower birth. When good and bad Karmas are more or less equal, he gets a human birth. By good Karmas man attains heaven, by bad Karmas hell, and by mixed Karmas he attains the world of men.
It is the nature of a man or a beast to get attached to the particular body in which it resides. The body of an ant is as dear to it as the body of an elephant is to an elephant or a human body is to a man. This wonderful attachment to the body arising out of ignorance keeps this wheel of birth and death eternally going. Of all births a particular creature likes the particular body which it has taken in the particular incarnation. A man likes a human birth; an elephant is pleased with its birth as an elephant and so on. At the same time everyone craves for evolution and attainment of unalloyed bliss. This is common for all created beings.
Birth as a man is superior because he has the power to discriminate and decide for himself. He knows himself and others and he is endowed with finer emotions of love, faith, shame, decency, non-injury, etc. An animal is devoid of intelligence, memory and knowledge. Therefore, birth as an animal is not desirable.
The life of a man who is not endowed with discrimination, knowledge of the Self, non-identification with the physical body, faith and love for fellow-beings is equal to that of a beast. The ignorant man sinks in the ocean of Samsara, and takes birth in various wombs until the eye of discrimination is opened, until he comes in contact with a guide who is ready to take him to a higher path. The ignorant worldly man takes birth as a dog, a cobra, a wolf or a tiger. There is no definite law as regards to them. The Sastras are quite correct in their statements. It is a serious mistake to take such utterances of the scriptures as merely figurative or metaphorical.
A spiritual Sadhaka who has started his life in the Divine has no fear of birth in a lower womb. A Yogi who practises Yoga even though he happens to fall from his entitled position is not ruined. He takes birth in better circumstances once again and pursues his spiritual path. In the Bhagavadgita, you will find: "O Partha, neither in this world, or in the next world is there destruction for him (who has fallen from the path of Brahman); none verily, who does good, O my son, ever comes to grief. Having attained to the worlds of the righteous and having dwelt there for everlasting years, he who fell from Yoga is reborn in a house of the pure and wealthy. Or he is born in a family of even the wise Yogis" (Chapter VI–40, 41, 42).
King Bharata, son of Rishabha, renounced his kingdom and took to the path of an ascetic. One day he observed a small motherless deer in the forest. He took pity on the poor creature and he so passionately loved this little one that his thoughts were mainly centred on the deer and thoughts of God gradually waned away. At the time of his death the thought of the small deer harassed him much and he took the birth of a deer.
King Bharata was well versed in all the scriptures, Vedas and Puranas. He did very rigorous Tapas and meditated on the lotus-feet of the glorious Vasudeva. But the inordinate attachment to the animal gave him the birth of a deer. Bharata opened his eyes and recognised his folly. The deer remembered every detail of the past life as King Bharata. It ever meditated on the Lord, ate but little and never mixed with other deers of its type. It was actually counting the number of days of its life to get freedom from the low birth. The deer after leaving its body again took the birth of a Brahmin known by the name Jada Bharata. Now Jada Bharata grew wise enough as not to commit the same mistake once again and from his very boyhood kept himself aloof. He had a mind free from attraction and repulsion. Thus he escaped the clutches of Maya and at the dissolution of his mortal sheath attained oneness with the Paramatman.
Gajendra, though he had to take the birth of an elephant, never forgot his real nature and ever prayed to Lord Hari and attained emancipation from the life of an elephant itself. The Sastras quote instances where animals and even birds have attained emancipation. Vritrasura, the great Rakshasa, was highly devoted to Vasudeva. He was King Chitraketu in his past birth who was cursed by Uma to become a Rakshasa.
From the foregoing examples it is quite clear that for a true and sincere Sadhaka there is no fear of downfall. Devotees of the Lord become absolutely fearless and they are devoid of all desires. They welcome any birth in which the Lord can be remembered.
What is wanted is real devotion to the Lord. That being achieved, a man becomes happy in any sort of life and under any circumstances. He gets a peculiar joy which helps him to bear even the most excruciating pain of Samsara.
The Rishis of yore had power to curse wicked persons and bless the virtuous. The sons of Kubera became trees by the curse of Narada. Gautama cursed his wife Ahalya to become a stone. They do this out of compassion for those who go astray, leaving the feet of Lord Hari. It is not with any selfish motive or by becoming a victim to anger that they curse the wicked. Therefore, contact with a saintly personality is highly beneficial in changing one's destiny.
Rishis are Trikalajnanis (knowers of the past, present and future). Therefore, they know the mysterious ways of Karma. They attained knowledge of the Self and by virtue of this knowledge everything else became known to them. The kind of body into which one enters depends on the pattern of the mind which is its causative factor. The law is inexorable.
It does not matter much what kind of body we wear. It matters much what our thoughts are. A man of high position may have the thoughts of a beast. When he becomes a prey to lust and anger, he is worse than an animal. A cow is a thousand times better than such a man who is devoid of discrimination, who indulges in vulgar enjoyments, who loses his temper for trifles.
Do not worry yourself as to what birth you will take in the future. Utilise the present life profitably and free yourself from death and birth. Develop devotion to the Lord. Renounce base desires. Be ever intent on doing good to others. Be kind and do good.
Lord Hari is the protector of the three worlds. The responsibility of taking every one of His creation to His immortal abode rests with Him. Let Him take you through any path He likes. Let Him give you Mukti when you are in the body of a man, a beast or a devil. Let your mind be ever centred on Him and cling to His lotus-feet like the bee that sticks to a full-blown lotus. Drink the sweet honey flowing from His lotus-feet and surrender yourself to Him like a child.
May you all become free from this ever-revolving wheel of Karma resulting in numerous births in various wombs and attain the bliss of the Immortal in this very life.
Development Of The Child
Having fallen from the lunar orb, and mixed with vapour, one comes down upon earth; there he remains in rice and the rest, for a long time, says the Chhandogya Upanishad.
Then he becomes the fourfold kind of food and is eaten by man and becoming the vital seed, is thrown by man into the womb of the woman when the season comes. (The allusion here is to the Panchagni Vidya of the Upanishads. The Passage of the Jiva mentioned here is from this world to the moon, thence to Parjanya (god presiding over rain), thence again to this world through rain, thence to man in whom the product of rain in the shape of grain and other eatables enters and thence into woman in whom the vital seed is thrown by man. These are the five fires through which gods pour libations before one becomes known as man. Every birth, thus, is a Cosmic event.)
There in the mother's womb mixed with blood and enveloped in the outer skin of the embryo, he becomes what is known as 'Kalal' in one day.
On the expiration of five nights he becomes a budbud (bubble). At the end of seven nights he attains the condition of a lump of flesh (Mamsapesi).
At the end of a fortnight that lump of flesh becomes filled with blood and at the expiration of 25 nights it sprouts forth.
At the end of one month are produced in it the neck, the head, the shoulder, the spine and the belly. Each of these five organs is produced one after the other.
In two months are produced in due order, and not otherwise, the hands, the feet, the sides, the hips, the thighs and knees.
In three months are produced gradually the joints of the body. All the fingers are produced gradually in four months.
The nose, the ears and the eyes are produced in the fifth month. The rows of the teeth, the nails, the secret organs are also produced in five months.
After the sixth month are produced the holes in the ears. In the same month are also produced the anus, the organs of generations, male and female, and the navel amongst human beings.
In the seventh month are produced hair on the body as well as the hair on the head.
In the eighth month all the organs of the body become divided.
In this manner the foetus increases in the womb of the woman. In the fifth month the embodied being becomes possessed of intelligence on all sides. It is sometimes held that this happens in the seventh month.
Through a small hole in the navel cord the creature derives its sustenance in the womb from the essence of what the mother eats and does not die because of its Karma, the force which engenders the impulsion for birth.
Remembering all his former births and his former actions, burning in the fire of the digestive organs, he utters the following:
"Being born in thousands of diverse births, I have enjoyed my connection with millions of sons, wives and relations.
"Attached to rearing up the family I earned wealth through fair and foul means. Unfortunate am I that I did not think of Vishnu even in a dream.
"Now I am reaping the fruit thereof in the shape of dire misery in this womb. Burning with desire and taking this unreal body for the reality I did what I ought not to have done and failed to do what was for my own good.
"Having in this way suffered misery of diverse kinds through my own Karma, when shall I get out of this womb which is like unto hell. Henceforth I will worship no one else but Vishnu."
Thinking of this and the like manner, the Jiva, pained by the pressure of the mother's organs, comes out with great trouble, like a sinner from hell.
Like a worm, from a festering sore, he comes out.
Then he suffers the troubles of the conditions of childhood, youth, old age and the rest.
Chapter Six
Lokas Or Planes
Preta Loka
A passionate man, whose mind is filled with lower appetites and strong sense-cravings, who has spent his life in much sensual indulgence in this earth-plane, enters the Preta Loka (astral world of gross density) after his death. He is unconscious for a short time after death. He is in a sleepy state. He awakens and finds himself in this Loka, or world.
As soon as he wakes up, the sensual cravings, desires and appetites torment him immensely. He wants to eat, drink and enjoy with women. But he cannot gratify his desires now with his present body. He is kept in this world just as a prisoner in the prison. Therefore, he is extremely miserable and unhappy, as he cannot gratify his passion in this plane. The senses are powerful, but he cannot get here the means of gratification. His misery is beyond description as he is not able to satisfy his passions, cravings and appetites. He is just like a starving man.
The passions have their roots and centres on the senses and the mind. They are not in the physical body. This physical body is only the instrument of gratification in the hands of the senses and the mind.
You can help the sufferer in the Preta Loka by performing Sraaddha (religious libations and offerings). Performance of Sraaddha helps to free him and make him pass on to Svarga, or heaven. The Mantras recited set up powerful vibrations. These vibrations come against the body which imprisons the individual soul, and break it for its freedom.
Do you realise now the importance of Sraaddha? Those who have left doing Sraaddha on account of ignorance, perversion of intellect caused by wrong Samskaras and bad association and hearing of wrong teaching should perform Sraaddha from this moment at least. Rishis and Sastras take care of you like kind mothers.
If you do not wish to enter the Preta Loka and undergo the sufferings, learn to be wise. Learn to control the senses. Lead a well-regulated and disciplined life. Do not allow the senses to run riot. Give up gluttony. Do not follow the philosophy of flesh. Passions and appetites will only torment you when you pass through death. If you practise self-restraint, you will enter the regions of bliss.